Thanks again, Dave, for reprinting the Gospel of the Trumpies, to help actual thinking people understand where these mental midgets are coming from.

 In his first column below (from July), he explains that Trumpism is essentially just a giant party of “Good ‘Ole Boys” (and Gals) who revel in the camaraderie of fellow Trumpists where they can finally find “belonging” in their culturally regressive religious and political views.  They see themselves as essentially “good people” – who only hate “the Enemies of God and America” (whom most of them have never encountered in the flesh as real human beings).  They love Trump because he’s their cartoon Jesus – the Savior who’s come to rescue them from the “leftists”, “communists”, “Marxists” and “Satanists”.  And he throws a mean rally – where everyone has a great time hyping each other up with the certainty of their righteous cause.  “Party on, Garth.”

 

In the second column below, Mr. French emphasizes the mystical, spiritual and emotional bonds that suffuse Trumpism.  It’s not a “political” movement, it’s a giant tent revival meeting where everyone “feels the Spirit” and revels in the fact that they’re the “Good Guys” – and The Enemy (you-know-who) is so Evil that they’re bonded by the Great Crusade to rid America of everything that they fear and hate.  And it’s the certainty that they’re “on God’s side” that makes this Crusade so emotionally and spiritually rewarding to them.  In short, it’s instant evangelical ecstasy – just like the evangelical tent revivals of a hundred years ago.  Trump is the new Billy Graham – but on steroids.

And make no mistake, what Mr. French illuminates below is truly horrifying.  When I rail against “Christo-fascism” – it’s this inchoate, emotional, irrational and nihilistic fever that animates these “believers” to reject The Enlightenment itself for an authoritarian, patriarchal and mystical “spirituality” that would take us back to not just the 19^th century, but rather to Medieval times.  It’s the home-grown version of the Taliban.  And Trump (bizarre as it still seems) is their Supreme Mullah.