The Cult of Donald

And why his followers don't care what he does

Issue #378 OpEd Monday, September 11, 2023

I sell the things you need to be
I'm the smiling face on your TV
Oh, I'm the cult of personality

I exploit you, still you love me
I tell you, one and one makes three
Oh, I'm the cult of personality

You gave me fortune, you gave me fame
You gave me power in your god's name
I'm every person you need to be
Oh, I'm the cult of personality

I am the cult of, I am the cult of
I am the cult of, I am the cult of
I am the cult of, I am the cult of
I am the cult of, I am the cult of personality

Excerpted from “Cult of Personality” by Living Color, 1988

This is going to be one of those pieces where I promise you I get to the point, just not right away. So stick with me.

Please…?

I’m a major fan of Living Color, the Black rock band who caught the express train to fame with this song, but then gradually faded away afterward. To me, that was crazy because they wrote a lot of other great songs, and they were a great performance band that could deliver on stage as well as in the studio.

But they were an all-Black band playing rock music, which has always been considered a white arena, even though rock music was created by Black people (Big Momma Thornton, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bo Diddley).

So this meant that white folks couldn’t all the way accept them, and neither could the labels, who automatically characterized and packaged any Black artist as being an artist who couldn’t possibly be labeled as rock because, well, they were Black.

But it also presented a problem when trying to appeal to Black audiences, because we weren’t much better at accepting a bunch of Black guys calling themselves rock musicians. Somehow George Clinton, the mastermind behind Parliament Funkadelic, figured out the formula to sell hard rock to massive Black audiences while also attracting a huge white fan base as well, but no one before or since has managed that feat. Not even the great Jimi Hendrix, my all-time musical hero.

The other thing about Living Color, though (OK, here’s where I start to get to the point), is that they had the nerve to write socially conscious lyrics that not only called racism on the carpet, but America itself. Even most white rock acts tend to back away from that third rail.

But strangely enough, it was Cult of Personality, their most socially conscious song by far, that launched them into the spotlight. Cult of Personality was like a massive injection of truth serum into the veins of pop music that made everyone sit up and take notice.

And maybe that’s why they had to fade away as well. Because the music industry doesn’t tend to get behind music that wakes people up and makes them think about the reality of their situation. Because just imagine if Cult of Personality was dominating the airwaves, brainwaves, and earholes today.

In fact, judging by the massive resistance of young people to what they see happening to their country, I would argue Cult of Personality is just as relevant now as it was when it was released more than three decades ago. Perhaps more so.

Because - and I’m hardly the first person to say this - the Republican Party as we once knew it is dead and most likely not coming back, at least not any time soon. And that is because the man currently in charge of the Republican Party, the man who has the entire party by the balls, is a cult leader. He is not even a Republican except by label, because the label suits his desires. He is not even a politician.

Donald Trump is a cult leader.

And because Donald Trump is a cult leader, his followers - and his knee-wobbling supplicants - follow him and only him. No matter what. This is the answer to the question of why do these idiots insist on standing behind this man who is a rapist, who has been impeached twice, indicted four times, and who tried to overthrow the United States government.

It is for the same reason that more than 900 people followed Jim Jones into the jungles of Guyana and eventually committed mass suicide on his command; they drank the Kool-Aid (although actually, it was “Flavor Aid,” not Kool-Aid). And the Kool-Aid told them that Jim Jones was never to be questioned, and to defend him against any and all who dared call his sacred name into question, even if such a defense resulted in violence or death.

Richard Nixon once said in a famous interview that anything the president did could not be considered illegal because the president did it. But even Nixon never considered overthrowing the government, nor did he have the kind of following willing to storm the U.S. Capitol and threaten to hang his Vice President.

Because Nixon most definitely was a politician, and he was most certainly not a cult leader. He was deranged, power-hungry, and somewhat evil, but he was not a cult leader, which is why the Republicans stood behind him for a while, but once it became too clear just how guilty he was, they bailed on him. For the sake of the Republican Party - and for the country.

Trump is not Nixon. Trump makes Nixon look like Winnie the Pooh. Trump is a clear and present danger to the United States, and he is without question the worst - and most dangerous - president this country has ever had.

If somehow he manages to slither through all his legal entanglements and everything else to win the presidency - and I honestly don’t think that will happen - he will succeed in rapidly finishing what he started. And what he started was the beginning of the end of the United States of America.

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