I think it's important to remind folks that the Republican Party was a cult long before Donald Trump took it over. Back in 2013, I wrote an article where I referred to the party as the Cult of Republicanity: a group of people who chose to believe in things that were objectively not backed by reality.
For a moment, let's ignore all the MAGA nonsense of the past decade.
Prior to Trump, what did Republicans always say they were about?
Fiscal conservatism, small government, family values, the Constitution, personal accountability, pro-life policies, religious freedom, border security, and states' rights.
Except, that was all bullsh*t long before Trump.
Fiscal Conservatism: This is one of the easiest ones for me, dating back to when I was much younger. It never made sense why a party looked at Ronald Reagan as the "icon of fiscal conservatism" when he nearly tripled the national debt during his eight years in office. How in the world is that "fiscally conservative"? Since then, Republican presidents have added more to the national debt than Democrats, and a president from the GOP hasn't balanced the budget since Eisenhower left office in 1961. So, how in the world do you claim to be the party of "fiscal responsibility" when your "icon" nearly tripled the national debt — and your party has added more to it than the opposition you claim is built on "out-of-control government spending"?
Small Government: This has always been a joke as well. The only time the GOP backs small government is when that government is trying to prevent them from using that very same government to impose their views on others. In nearly every other instance, such as gay marriage and abortion, they want a massive, controlling government. Even at the state level, they're hypocrites. Here in Texas, when a local city or county passes something Republicans oppose at the state level, Gov. Greg Abbott signs legislation that overrides the will of that smaller local government. Republicans love themselves some big government whenever they can use it to force others to follow their ideologies.
Family Values: How? Where? Newt Gingrich was the House Speaker in the '90s who led the impeachment over Bill Clinton's affair while he himself had multiple affairs on both of his wives. But it gets worse: he divorced his first wife, whom he was cheating on, while she was being treated for cancer. Then he divorced his second wife, whom he was cheating on, just months after she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Then the very next Republican House Speaker, Dennis Hastert, sexually abused and assaulted male students when he was a high school teacher. And now the party is represented by Donald Trump, with Pete Hegseth and RFK Jr. right there with him — three men with multiple affairs, divorces, two confirmed legal cases involving sexual assault, as well as multiple other allegations.
The Constitution: Like with everything else in the GOP sphere, such as the Bible, they cherry-pick what and when they want to look to the Constitution. Similar to their stance on small government, they want to use the Constitution when it benefits them, then ignore it when it doesn't.
Personal Accountability: Absolutely none. Again, these are the folks who impeached Clinton for having an affair while embracing practically any scumbag with an "R" next to their name. And while the Epstein files have proven that Republicans will clearly ignore the need to go after child predators, let's not forget Roy Moore, another accused child predator, who nearly won the Senate seat in Alabama, getting 48.3% of the vote even after multiple victims had come forward with details of his abuse of them while they were minors. That was in 2018.
Pro-Life: That's always been nonsense. The question I always ask conservatives is this: Tell me a policy besides abortion where anything else your party supports could remotely be considered "pro-life." They oppose programs that feed impoverished children, they oppose any sensible gun regulations to save lives, and they oppose health care access, which would also save lives. The term "pro-life" is just a slogan they use for their abortion stance, but outside of that, they do absolutely nothing else to protect life.
Religious Freedom: By this, they mean they want the religious freedom to force their warped views and fake "Christianity" on others, but they damn sure don't mean total religious freedom for all religions. By "freedom of religion," they mean their right to restrict the religious freedoms of others by forcing their views into our laws — which is the exact opposite of religious freedom.
Border Security: Here's a secret — Republicans really don't want to solve the issues with illegal immigration. If they did, how would they use illegal immigrants to demonize and manipulate their base? I've lived in Texas my entire life. Republicans have fully controlled this state for over 30 years. So, why haven't they shut Texas's border down? They have the power and money to do so. It's all about small government and states' rights, right? Then what are Texas Republicans waiting for? Oh, I know — they're going to blame Democrats even though Republicans have controlled Texas for three decades. Like a lot of "boogeyman" issues Republicans use, they really don't want to solve a problem because then they can't use that issue to scare their voters and distract them from the other policies they have that are screwing all of them over.
States' Rights: Again, same with the Constitution and "small government." Republicans have only ever believed in states' rights when the federal government was trying to block them from violating the constitutional rights of others. Yet when it comes to Republicans controlling the federal government, they're more than willing to do whatever they can to force big government on every American in every state so that every American is made to live their lives according to the GOP's values.
So, you see, Republicans were a cult long before Trump rose to take the party over: millions of people who believed in a political party whose actions and policies didn't back the propaganda they were pushing about what they supposedly supported.
Which is exactly how a con artist like Donald Trump took the party over in the first place: someone who realized that you could get these people to believe anything as long as you told them what they wanted to hear.
Now they've not just contradicted everything I've already listed, they're now against free markets — a pillar of the GOP economic platform for decades — and, after spending the last 10+ years saying how against America getting involved in new wars they were, they're all onboard with Trump's war in Iran.
You know, the war he warned these same voters they better vote for him to avoid because Kamala Harris would absolutely start one.
The party of "Christian family values, personal responsibility, small government, the Constitution, and fiscal conservatism" completely sold out to...
A multiple adulterer, the antithesis of Christian values — a man who takes absolutely no personal responsibility for anything he does, has effectively torn up the Constitution as he tries to rule like a dictator, and will go down in history having added more trillions to the national debt than any other president in history.
It wasn't a matter of if a lowlife piece of crap took over the Republican Party, just when and who it would be.
Because Donald Trump isn't the cause of what made the Republican Party a cult; he's just the result of the Cult of Republicanity that existed long before he took the party over.
world.
