authoritarianism

Lev Parnas, Michael Cohen, Omarosa Manigault Newman, George Conway, Anthony Scaramucci, Rick Wilson and Others: Trump is a Cult Leader

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Lev Parnas, during his interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, described himself as waking up from a cult and Donald Trump like a “cult leader.” Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney for twelve years, expressed similar thoughts and feelings. Omarosa Manigault Newman, in her book Unhinged, described leaving the cult of Trumpworld. George Conway, Republican attorney and advisor to The Lincoln Project, has repeatedly described Trump as a mentally unfit narcissist and said his wife, Kellyanne Conway, was in a cult. Rick Wilson referred to the GOP as having been turned into a cult, lorded over by Trump. Wilson messaged me that he had read my book and said it was fantastic. Wilson has a new book out: Running Against the Devil: A Plot to Save America from Trump–And Democrats from Themselves. Anthony Scaramucci was one of the first brave Republicans to speak out about the Cult of Trump. He likened Trump to being like “Jim Jones,” that he thought the GOP needing deprogramming, and called my book “brilliant” and “required reading.” Of course, Brian Stelter of CNN’s Reliable Sources did a 35 minute podcast interview with me and then did a 4 minute segment on The Cult of Trump. This prompted a Tucker Carlson segment that then got spread like wildfire among right media sources like Breitbart, Rush Limbaugh and others.

Lev Parnas, Michael Cohen, Omarosa Manigault Newman, George Conway, Anthony Scaramucci, Rick Wilson and Others: Trump is a Cult Leader Read More

Exvangelicals Find a Voice and Speak Out Against Authoritarianism

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A few weeks before the 2016 Presidential election, Stanford Russian history Ph.D. Dr. Chrissy Stroop wrote an article, “After the Trump Tapes: Evangelical Authoritarianism Revisited.” In it, she shared her concerns about what she saw was a powerful group of people publicly defined as white evangelical Christians who were supporting Trump and who exhibited the characteristics of an authoritarian movement. While many might not identify with the term Dominionism directly–the belief that Christians should take over America and the world and make it Christian in a very narrow way–they were Christian nationalists pursuing a de facto, and sometimes explicit, Dominionist political agenda. The majority of white evangelicals appear to wish to create a theocracy and abolish the separation of Church and State, something the founders of our country explicitly wish to make sure did not happen.

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Undue Influence, The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu, and Current Events

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Hulu has created a television series based on Margaret Atwood’s book, The Handmaid’s Tale, and it is highly recommended viewing*. Last year, Hulu produced The Path and I was interviewed by Vanity Fair for my perspective. This time, I am blogging about The Handmaid’s Tale as I believe this is a very upsetting but well made dramatic series that is worthwhile watching. It is especially disquieting for me as it is set in New England. A political cult takes over the U.S. after a staged terrorist attack and martial law is declared. When the book and the 1990 movie came out, there was some speculation Atwood had used a New Jersey cult as well as an alleged witch as a creative basis for her story. The series has been creatively adapted to a feared Trumpistan authoritarian dystopia.

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