By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
McALLEN, Texas | Reporters asked Lindsey Graham, the U.S. Senator from South Carolina, if he felt siding by troubled Donald J. Trump so often meant that he was in a cult. "No, I'm not in a cult," Graham said in quick reply.
When they asked former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin the same question, she said: "The response that we've seen in polling from Republicans suggests that they're going to stick with him, that it's more of a cult than a political party at this point."
The press had asked her bout rabid MAGA supporters of the thrice-indicted Trump.
Well, he doesn't seem to lose ground no matter what ridiculous thing he says or does. Trump at times even gains in polls undertaken to see where 2024 presidential candidates are in relation to one another on the campaign trails.
Much sense has been said about the seemingly glued connection between MAGA fans and the former president. There are similarities to actual cults, but most who look into it come away with a variety of reasons for such strong attractions to Trump. One is racism, which Trump pushes. Bigotry, too. A crazed disdain for the federal government. A wild desire to blame Democrats for the nation's ills. And, more recently, a burning belief on the part of some Americans that the country's Department of Justice has been weaponized against Republicans.
All of that is in the mix. And, yes, Donald Trump is the common bond, the one who brings them all together. Mostly, this brawling Republican Party (and we differentiate it from the one that counts more-sensible members, such as traditional Republicans Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney) is a symbiotic collection of whiners, losers and people who fell between the economic cracks. All you have to do is scan one of Trump's rally crowds to get that impression. InstaPoll: 86% of MAGA is comprised of food stamps recipients.
When they speak, what you hear is low-rent English and a distinctly rural vocabulary.
Maria, these are not our best citizens.
But they do vote. And that's the challenge for Democrats and for America.
Cultists will go to the end of the road with their leader, as David Koresh found out in Waco back in February of 1993. Jonestown, Guyana back in November 1978 ring a bell? Some 900 cult followers of Jim Jones were commanded to drink cyanide-laced drinks. They all died. Jones was found with a gunshot wound to the head, quite dead.
Those are typical endings to these things. We don't believe Trump would ever kill himself (too vain), but we do wonder about his die-hard followers. The idea of a horrible ending for MAGA types is premature. MAGA is hot right now.
What would happen if Trump lost the 2024 presidential election and found himself convicted of the felony charges he now faces, prison being front-center in the world of news photos?
That's the Great Unknown.
It's a long way to the end of 2024, to political resolution (the vote) and to the loss of any sort of redemption (the jury's verdict).
Cult leader or mere celebrity of the moment, Donald Trump himself can only wish the worst does not come to pass...
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