Trump's "cult of personality" has an obvious parallel in history

  

A recent CNBC/Change Research poll showed the power of Trump’s lies and his seeming ability to control the thought processes of millions of people, as if they are automatons being fed information which they process, but without understanding their import. Only 3% of Trump voters said they accepted Biden's victory as legitimate, and 73% considered Trump the legitimate winner. Further, only 3% of Trump voters thought that he should concede the election and allow a transition to a Biden administration to go forward. In fact, two-thirds of Trump voters believed that he should never concede at all. It is Trump right or wrong--and especially if he is wrong, because the cult of personality demands absolute obedience. Let’s recall what Stephen Miller said a few years ago on Face the Nation:

The end result of this, though, is that our opponents, the media and the whole world will soon see as we begin to take further actions, that the powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned.

Although this was in regard to the Muslim ban, this philosophy quickly expanded like a spider's web to ensnare virtually every corner of Trumpworld. Although there are checks to the exercise of his authoritarian tendencies, Trump indeed has those tendencies. In his paper The ABC of Sycophancy. Structural Conditions for the Emergence of Dictators’ Cults of Personality, Adrian Teodor Popan’s definition of the “cult of personality” certainly applies in many ways to someone like Trump: a "quantitatively exaggerated and qualitatively extravagant public demonstration of praise of the leader."

What enables such a “leader” is that instead of “power” being driven by an impersonal bureaucracy, the cult of personality demands power through patrimonislism--the concentration of authority through one person or group; clientelism, “the exchange of resources for political support, often taking the form of a hierarchical relationship between patron (the politician providing resources) and clients (providers of political support), and sometimes including intermediaries, or brokers, at different levels of the power structure”; the lack of dissidence or dissent, particularly within one’s own governing structure or party; and the “systematic falsification pervading the society’s culture”--which we see in full display in the false election claims by Trump, his supporters unquestioning belief in them regardless of all evidence to the contrary, and the continuing enabling of false conspiracy claims by the right-wing media.

The Nuremberg Tribunals in 1946 collected and translated many Nazi government documents, to try to understand the system that most Germans seemed agreeable living under; here is what some of them said about the power of the Fuehrer:

The authority of the Fuehrer is complete and all-embracing; it unites in itself all the means of political direction; it extends into all fields of national life; it embraces the entire people, which is bound to the Fuehrer in loyalty and obedience.

Stephen Miller, anyone? How about this:

The authority of the Fuehrer is not limited by checks and controls, by special autonomous bodies or individual rights, but it is free and independent, all-inclusive and unlimited. The Fuehrer-Reich of the (German) people is founded on the recognition that the true will of the people cannot be disclosed through parliamentary votes and plebiscites but that the will of the people in its pure and uncorrupted form can only be expressed through the Fuehrer.

All you have to do is go to a Trump rally to fully grasp the truth of that in this country. This country is no “democracy” to them, where there is give-and-take and compromise. They fully accept a president who is acting without constraint as long as that power is used to rid the country of whoever and whatever they feel grievance toward. Right-wing politicians or media who dare to be "independent" are quickly consumed by the wrath of the "faithful" and the insults and threats from the "leader."

Thus at the head of the Reich, stands a single Fuehrer, who in his personality embodies the idea which sustains all and whose spirit and will therefore animate the entire community. The will of the Fuehrer is the Party's law. The first commandment for the Party members declares "The Fuehrer is always right."

With only a few exceptions, we have seen Republican politicians either silently abide or publicly support Trump’s “right” to subvert democracy in this country with outrageously false claims. Many are fearful of crossing Trump, which is the result of their own failure to confront him early on; for them, the ends “justified” the means, and once Trump started employing the “means” in clearly unethical and unlawful ways, they could do nothing to stop him, because their credibility was shot and he felt no need to listen to them. Only the support of the mob matters to Trump.

Rudolph Hess, the number two man in the Nazi hierarchy--until his “peace mission” to Britain--declared in a 1934 speech:

It is with pride that we see that one man is kept above all criticism -- that is the Fuehrer. "The reason is that everyone feels and knows: he was always right and will always be right. The National Socialism of us all is anchored in the uncritical loyalty, in the devotion to the Fuehrer that does not ask for the wherefore in the individual case, in the tacit performance of his commands. We believe that the Fuehrer is fulfilling a divine mission to German destiny! This belief is beyond challenge. 

Trump may not be the American Hitler, and his supporters may deny that their unquestioning support of this man suggests a willingness to accept fascist authoritarianism--so long as it is just unwanted immigrants or people who are not "real" Americans whose “liberty” and “freedom” is being deprived. But the reality is that white nationalism, white grievance and so-called “America First” policies have a close relationship with the factors that led to fascism and the acceptance of authoritarianism. Belief in outlandish conspiracy theories, demonizing vulnerable groups and making exaggerated claims demonizing the political philosophy of opposing parties are hallmarks of a fascist society--or at the very least, one that only accepts "democracy" as long as their side wins.

This is why Trump needed to be stopped and prevented from “consolidating” this tendency. This country needs at least a four-year hiatus to reclaim its institutions and its democratic ideals; it may be too late given how deeply Trumpism is embedded in the Republican base, but we’ve got to try.