Exodus 20:16: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

Lydia M. Child [1852]: “It is right noble to fight with wickedness and wrong; the mistake is in supposing that spiritual evil cab be overcome by physical means.”

John H. Holmes [1926]: “Evil is here in the world, not because God wants it or uses it here, but because He knows not how at the moment to remove it; or knowing, has not the skill or power to achieve His end. Evil, therefore, is a fact not to be explained away, but to be accepted; and accepted not to be endured, but to be conquered. It is a challenge neither to our reason nor to our patience, but to our courage.:

Charles Kimball [2002]: “THe Five Warning Signs of Corruption in Religion: absolute truth claims, blind obedience, establishing the “ideal” time, the end justifies any means, declaring holy war……..One or more of these five signs always precedes any instance of religiously sanctioned evil. Knowledge of such corruption is invaluable in today’s world, yet it is not sufficient in itself. Whether on is a true believer or a die-hard secularist, it remains necessary to take the next step from knowledge of these factors that predict when religion becomes evil to a clear understanding of how religion can remain true to its authentic sources and a force for positive change.” {from Kimball’s book: “When Religion Becomes Evil”}

Hosea 10:13: “You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity; you have eateb the fruit of lies>”

Martin Luther King, Jr [1963[: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction….The chain reaction of evil – hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars – must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.”

Isaiah 48:22: “There is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked.”

Margaret Mead [1978}: “It may be necessary temporarily to accept a lessor evil, but one must never label a necessary evil is good.”

Matthew 7:17-18: “Every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.”

Reinhold Niebuhr [1959]: “In the collective life of man, at least, most evil arises be3cause finite men involved in the flux of time pretend that they are not so involved. They make claims of virtue, of wisdom, and of power which are beyond their competence as creatures. These pretensions are the source of evil, whether they are expressed by kings and emperors or by commissars and revolutionary statesmen.”

Proverbs 14:21: “He that despises his neighbor sins.”

Theodore

roosevelt[1900]: “No man is justified in doing evil on the ground of expediency.”

Psalm 12:8: “The wicked walk about freely when the vilest men are exalted.”

Adlai E. Stevenson [1952]: “Those who corrupt the public mind are just as evil as those who steal from the public purse>”

Psalm 141:11: “Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men that work iniquity.”

Henry D Thoreau [1854]: “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”

Philip Zimbardo [2007[: “Let’s begin with a definition of evil. Mine is simple, psychologically based one: Evil consists in intentionally behaving in ways that harm, abuse, demean, dehumanize, or destroy innocent others – or using one’s authority and systemic power to encourage or permit others to do so on your behalf. In short, as my friend and mentor Irving Sarnoff says in his aphorism, ‘Evil is knowing better but doing worse.'” from: Zimbardo’s “The Lucifer Effect Understanding How Good people Turn Evil”}

again, credit for quotations from: “The Harper Book of American Quotations,” by G. Carruth and E, Ehrlich, hopefully obvious, the Christian Bible}

Much of the following has been inspired and quoted from National Book Award winning Robert Jay Lifton’s 2019 “Losing Reality.” Subtitled “On Cults, Cultism, and The Mindset of Political and Religious Zealotry” gives reflection to Lifton’s career long study of various forms of extremism.

Lifton’s analysis and commentary on Chinese Communist Thought Reform comes mostly from his 1960’s observations. A chapter on Trump is part of his 2019 book. This post exists because of the many startling comparisons between Mao and Trump.

One Red Guard member stated: “So long as it is revolutionary, no action is a crime.”

Mao became “an absolute guru” to the young Red Guards.

The “inevitable falsehoods of a cultist group, especially ..falsehoods..turned into policy.”

A description of Mao by his doctor included these observations: one of the richest men in China, lived like an emperor, served culinary delicacies, interrupted plane and train travel when he traveled, had attractive young actresses and dancers brought to him every night for his sexual pleasure, gave them venereal diseases, showed little or no concern for the suffering or death of others – even with direct evidence
Another observer characterized Mao as “clearly a monster – egomaniacal, oblivious to 20th century science, technology…paranoid, cruel, cunning, deceitful, and a sexual predator.”

On August l8, 1966, Mao appeared for a dawn gigantic rally – and gave his blessing to the Red Guard. “Within a few days tens of thousands were roaming..the entire country..destroying the “Four Olds.” The Red Guards were going to achieve “class purity..cleansing the entire nation.”

Western observers in Hong Kong had thoughts of watching in real life Leni Riefenstahl’s “The Triumph of the Will,” portraying Adolf Hitler at Nuremberg

The Chinese press characterized Mao during the Cultural Revolution as “Great Leader<” “Great Teacher<” “Great Helmsman.” Mao’s thoughts were contained in “Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong.”

Mao was thought to be merging with the masses. A total revolutionary would be “ready to sacrifice his life..determined to change heaven and earth, fight the enemy, stick to the truth.”

“Most significant of all was the godlike style of Mao’s participation in public events…”

“Donald Trump is a special kind of cultist…his beliefs can be remarkably fluid..his cultism is inseparable from his solipsistic reality [what the self requires].”
“A considerable portion of his base can be understood as cultist, as followers of a guru who is teacher, guide, and master.”

“He tells us that, as not only a ‘genius’ but a ‘very stable genius.’ he alone can ‘fix’ the terrible problems of our society.”

Steve Bannon “characterizes Trump’s cabinet choices of people opposed to the work of their agencies as consistent with his own wish “to destroy the state.'”

“Over the course of his presidency, Trump has become still more grandiose.” His lies and falsehoods not only increasing, but often in direct contrary opposition to previous statements Trump made himself.

“A dangerous direction on the part of Trump is to translate his falsehoods into policies…..an expanding sense of Trump’s unfitness, affirmed by..psychological professionals..often shared by Trump’s Republican supporters who speak in whispers about his “craziness” while defending him publicly..”

“…Trump’s solipsism can connect with a sea of mostly right-wing exaggeration, misinformation, conspiracism, falsehood, and lies.”

Trump is described as ‘virtually indifferent to reality’ and as ‘trying to make truth irrelevant.'”

Are the comparisons of Mao and Trump “perfect?” Obviously not. But, look at the overall patterns. Look at how their followers have regarded them. Look at the effect thy’ve had. Look at what their followers have done. Look at what their followers were acting out. Most of all, look at August 18, 1966 – and – January 6, 2021. They gave their blessing to the destruction that followed. That destruction was an attempt to tear down what existed – a destruction that benefitted the vision of an authoritarian leader.
Mao was a dictator. From multiple observations, Donald J. Trump wanted to be a dictator. Multiple international leaders and analysts have seen Trump’s effort at fomenting an insurrection as the acts of a “banana republic” dictator.

Mao’s policies {“Cultural Revolution”} led to estimates of between 20 and 50 million deaths, and much suffering. Trump’s policies – as part of the post-1980 American “Culture War” – have led to much suffering. Besides documented incompetence – notably with respect to COVID-19, Trump has demeaned America and American democracy. He has debased everything and nearly everyone whom he has touched. The black mark he has defaced America with will be along time erasing.

Trump’s worst, most devastating assault is on the very fact and concept of what pre-2015 was considered the truth. His, by one count, 20-25,000 lies and mistruths have forever endangered rational, fact-based discussion. The concept of “alternative facts”has been embraced by a large segment of American; untruths recycled endlessly in all media forms and platforms. This is most egregiously displayed by the – incredible – refusal of many – mostly Trump followers – to practice sound medical advice in the face of the worst international health crisis in 100 years.

Without truth, respect for internationally recognized facts, democracy is impossible. It would appear that Vladimir Putin has more than received his money’s worth.

A. Bronson Alcott [1868}: “One’s outlook is part of his virtue.”

Louisa M. Alcott [1868]: “MY lady…had yet to learn that money cannot buy refinement of nature, that rank does not always confer nobility, and that true breeding makes itself felt in spite of external drawbacks.”

Henry W. Beecher [1866]: “The prouder a man is, the more he thinks he deserves; and the more he thinks he deserves, the less he really does deserve.”

Jacqueline Bisset [1974]: “Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades. A mode of conduct, a standard of courage, discipline, fortitude and integrity can do a great deal to make a woman beautiful.”

Jimmy Carter [1982]: “If the misery of others leaves you indifferent and with no feeling of sorrow, then you cannot be called a human being.”

Everett Dirksen [1970]: “Life is not a static thing. The only people who do not change their minds are incompetents in asylums, who can’t, and those in cemeteries.”

Helen G. Douglas [1982]: “Character isn’t inherited. One builds it daily by the way one thinks and acts, thought by thought, action by action. If one lets fear or hate or anger take possession of the mind, they become self-forged chains.”

Ralph W. Emerson [1841]: “Pride ruined the angels.”

Ralph W. Emerson [1860]: “The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.”

W.C. Fields [1949]: “You can’t cheat an honest man.”

Benjamin Franklin [1749]: “Many Foxes grow grey, but few grow good.”

Josiah G. Gilbert [1872]: “God give us men! A time like this demands Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands.
Men whom the lust of office does not kill; Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; Men who possess opinions and a will; Men who have honor; men who will not lie.”

Elbert Hubbard [1911]: “God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas, but for scars.”

Jesse Jackson [1984]: “If in my high moments, I have done some good, offered some service, shed some light, healed some wounds, rekindled some hope, or stirred someone from apathy and indifference, or in any way along the way helped somebody, then this campaign has not been in vain…”

Thomas Jefferson [1823]: “We believed…that man was a rational animal, endowed by nature with rights, and with an innate sense of justice…We believed that…wisdom and virtue were not hereditary.” [the majority views of the Constitutional Convention}

Martin Luther King, Jr. [1963]: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Henry Kissinger, attributed to [1979}: “I know I have a first rate mind, but that’s no source of pride to me. Intelligent people are a dime a dozen. But I am proud of having character.”

Abraham Lincoln, quoted in Anthony Gross, Lincoln’s Own Stories” [1912]: ‘Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of; the tree is the real thing.”

James R. Lowell {1843]: “They are slaves who fear to speak For the fallen and the weak.”

Horace Mann [1859]: “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity>”

Dwight L. Moody, attributed to: “Character is what you are in the dark.”

Carl T. Rowan [1980]: “I learned years ago not to doze off or leave my wallet lying around in the presence of people who tell me that they are more moral than others.”

Abigail Van Buren [1974]: “THe best index to a person’s character is (a) how he treats people who can’t do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can’t fight back.”

George Washington, quoted in Maxims of Washington, 1942: “I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain (what I consider the most enviable of all titles) the character of an “Honest Man.”

*****note: the above is contained in “The Harper Book of American Quotations,” by G.Carruth and E.Ehrlich

*****as this is posted on January l3, 2021 – never has the value of these sentiments been more obvious, more necessary, and never more missing.

In 1935, Sinclair Lewis published “It Can’t Happen Here,” a fictional dictator in America. In 1949, George Orwoll published “1984>” Smug Americans discounted much of this. Authoritarian rule can’t happen in America, because Americans believe in democracy.

Events of 2015-2021 [-???] now cast doubt on this. We’ve had a Hitler wanna be; we’ve discovered millions [14%] of Right-Wing Authoritarians waiting for him, eager to listen [and be told what they want to hear] and follow him.

Germany had its “Kristallnacht by Nazi thugs. America had its Capitol trashed by Trump-encouraged thugs. Germany had its persecution of Jews and “untermenschen.” America has had persecution of non-whites. Germany put “enemies of the people” to death. Death threats are issued to Trump’s critics and opponents.

Hitler said “I’m the one who can save Germany.” Trump said”I’m the one to save America.” Hitler acquired all powers, became dictator. Trump wanted, tried, to rule as dictator. Germans were expected to be loyal to Hitler. Trump demands loyalty. Hitler cult followers willingly persecuted Jews. Trump cult followers follow orders.

Nazis had much “coded” language [“Final Solution”]. Trump’s “coded” language included “law and order” and “religious liberty.” Hitler was vindictive to opponents; delighted in watching filmed torture of them. Trump has often spoken about delighting in “getting even;” delights in hurting people.

Hitler had many Nazi Party enablers; many who eagerly carried out his orders. Trump has benefitted from various enablers his entire life; many Republicans eagerly carried out his orders. Germany saw street battles between Hitler’s thugs and their opponents. America has witnessed street battles between Trump followers and opponents.

Hitler was financed by “conservative” businessmen who feared communism. Trump has been supported by “conservatives” who fear “socialism” [meaning they’ll have to pay reasonable taxes, treat workers with respect, follow American laws]. Connected Germans got rich. Connected Americans got rich [including reverse Robin Hood tax cuts].

Hitler specialized in telling the “BIG lie;” telling it often. Trump specializes in telling the “BIG lie;” telling it often [between 20-25,000 by one count}. German “true believers” got their “information’ from Dr. Joseph Goebbels. American “true believers” get their “information” from Fox echo chamber and Rush Limbaugh.

Germans lived in an atmosphere of fear and terror; had to be careful what they said to whom. Trump has stoked an atmosphere of fear [of “them”]; Americans have to be careful who they talk to honestly.

Hitler’s “economic miracle” was the militarization of Germany. America has been militarized domestically – one could be shot at any time, any where; this “right” is so important to Trump’s base that gun stores – in the midst of a pandemic – were declared as “essential businesses.”

Germany had two sets of “justice,” one for Aryans and one for Jews. America has exhibited two sets of “justice,” one for whites and one for non-whites. Germany had the “justice” of the infamously rigged Nazi kangaroo courts. America has the “justice” of the Republican-appointee dominated Supreme Court.

The Nazis had the support of fundamentalist churches. Republicans have the support of fundamentalist churches. The Nazis opposed abortion, persecuted gays. The Republicans oppose abortion, persecute gays.

There were numerous heroic attempts by Germans to oust Hitler. There has been multiple incidents of Americans trying to restrain Trump – in official testimony, in private actions by members of his administration.

The rest of the world was horrified by Nazi Germany; eventually united against it. The rest of the civilized world has been horrified by Trump; American has become isolated {before January 6, 2021 – America, and Trump, polled lower than Putin!]

Hitler led Germany to ruin. Trump has led America to disunity and danger. Hitler denied defeat. Trump denied defeat. Hitler committed physical suicide. Trump committed political suicide.

Coincidence??? Vanity Fair [1990] reported his first wife told her lawyer that Trump had a collection of Hitler’s speeches which he periodically read.

Is Donald J. Trump the exact clone of Adolf Hitler? No. The American system restrained his ignorant and incompetent, corrupt and cruel behavior. There’s no doubt Trump’s example will be a staple of future analysis and discussion. We’ve had bad presidents before; even good men who failed. But – Donald Trump – is important for what he revealed about us. He held a mirror to America – and we don’t like what we see.

As John Dean and Bob Altemeyer say in “Authoritarian Nightmare [2020], the real danger is that of a future “Trump.” A smarter Trump might not shoot himself in the foot.Steven Hassan in “The Cult of Trump” [2019] explained and detailed how Trump used mind control techniques to influence behavior.

In 1787 Philadelphia, Ben Franklin gave this famous answer to a question on what the recently concluded Constitutional Convention had created: “A republic, if you can keep it.” “..if you can keep it.” sounds much more urgent in the wake of 2015-2021.

The Founders had four main fears” abuse of power, slavery, religion, and mobs. 2015-2021 have now dramatized these fears way too much. The anti-George Washington managed to become president – and then unleashed the other 3 fears.

One final, oft remarked upon point – in 1933, Germany elected Adolf Hitler. In 1933, America elected Franklin D. Roosevelt. Character counts. Wanting democracy to succeed counts. Emphasizing hope over fear counts. Policies to help the common man succeed count. Love over hatred counts.

John Adams [1798]: “The declaration that our People are hostile to a government made by themselves, for themselves, and conducted by themselves, is an insult.”

Grover Cleveland [[1894]: “The Ship of Democracy, which has weathered all storms, may sink through the mutiny of those on board.”

Henry S. Commager [1954]: “If our democracy is to flourish, it must have criticism; if our government is to function it must have dissent.”

Calvin Coolidge [1924]: ‘The governments of the past could fairly be characterized as devices for maintaining in perpetuity the place and position of certain privileged classes, without any ultimate protection for the rights of the people. The Government of the United States is a device for maintaining in perpetuity the rights of the people, with the ultimate extinction of all privileged classes.”

James F. Cooper [1838]: “The American doctrinaire is the converse of the American demagogue, and, in his way, is scarcely less injurious to the public. The first deals in poetry, the last in cant.”

Helen G. Douglas [1946]: “A vigorous democracy – a democracy in which there are freedom from want, freedom from fear, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech – would never succumb to communism or any other ism.”

Alexander Hamilton [1787-88]: “It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of society against the injustice of the other part.”

Robert M. Hutchins [1954]: “The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.”

Otto Kahn [1918]: “The deadliest foe of democracy is not autocracy but liberty frenzied.”

George F. Kennan [195l]: “And so the chauvinists of all times and places go their appointed way; plucking the easy fruits, reaping the little triumphs of the day at the expense of someone else tomorrow, deluging in noise and filth anyone who gets in their way, dancing their reckless dance on the prospects for human progress, drawing the shadow of a great doubt over the validity of democratic institutions. And until the peoples learn to spot the fanning of mass emotions and the sowing of bitterness, suspicion, and intolerance as crimes themselves – as perhaps the greatest disservice that can be done to the cause of popular government – this sort of thing will continue to occur.”

Sinclair Lewis[1935]: “Cure the evils of Democracy by the evils of Fascism! Funny therapeutics! I’ve heard of their curing syphilis by giving the patient malaria, but I’ve never heard of their curing malaria by giving the patient syphilis.”

H>L>Mencken [1920]: “The most popular man under a democracy is not the most democratic man, but the most despotic man. The common folk delight in the exactions of such a man. They like him to boss them. Their natural gait is the goosestep.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt [1940]: “Democracy can thrive only when it enlists the devotion of those whom Lincoln called the common people. Democracy can hold that devotion only when it adequately respects their dignity by so ordering society as to assure to the masses of men and women reasonable security and hope for themselves and for their children.”

Benjamin Spock [1968]: “Democracy appears to me potentially a higher form of political organization than any kind of dictatorship. But if it turns out that America, which could afford a decent living for everyone, the comfortable majority is willing to condone the misery and abuse of a minority for an indefinite period, the exploitation by the majority becomes as repugnant as exploitation by an oligarchy, and democracy loses half its supposed superiority.”

Henry D Thoreau [1849]: “There will never be a free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.”

Virginia Declaration of Rights, June 12, 1776; Section 13: “That a well-regulated militia , composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty…”
Section 16: “That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity toward each other.”

***note: the above quotes have been supplied by The Harper Book of American Quotations, by G.Carruth and E. Ehrlich


Those of us now privileged to be living in the United States in January, 2021 – might be well advised to reconsider what we think our “rights” are. And perhaps to reflect on what our “responsibilities” are instead.

There are now two “Days of Infamy,” December 7, 1941 and January 6, 2021. The first occurred because of an attack by foreign fascists, the second because of an attack by American fascists, some waving Confederate flags. The U.S. Capitol has now been trashed twice. Once by the British in 1814, once by “Americans” in 2021.

Our president warned us, 1938-1941, of fascist danger, to no avail. The president, 2016-2021, incited authoritarian, cult-like behavior, to much travail. 1938-41 we were plagued by Silver Shirts, German American Bund, and America Firsters. 2016-2021 we we’ve been plagued by America Firsters, armed hooligans in streets believers in various crazy conspiracies, religious zealots, and Trump Cult zealots. Tragically, many of these later group have been grievously and flagrantly lied to and misinformed.

Post- 12/7/41, America rallied behind our president to defeat Asian and European fascism. The urgent 2021 question: will America rally to defeat domestic fascism?

Post-12/7/41, the right wing insisted our president had set up America at Pearl Harbor, a plot to drag America into foreign war [ neglecting the fact that Nazism was/is the most evil philosophy ever]. Post-1980, the right wing is insisting YOUR government has set up America for failure. This plot of “THEM” – commies, pinkos, liberals, gays, Jews, non-whites, socialists, immigrants, “big government,”…..”must be stopped” at all costs.

Post-1980, forces on the political-economic-religious-social “right” have declared war on America. In the past, they’ve murdered doctors, trashed buildings, blown up buildings, paraded in streets with guns and flags, terrorized people who disagreed, corrupted government and courts. On January 6, 2021, some of these people staged an insurrection that had been planned for some time, many were armed.

In September, 1787, Benjamin Franklin answered a Philadelphia woman’s question about what the Constitutional Convention had produced. His famous answer: “A republic, if you can keep it.” “..if WE can keep it. Do WE want to?

On January 27, 1837, Abraham Lincoln said: “At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” So – do WE want to endure, OR, allow domestic fascists carry out that suicide?

Since 1980, Republican “leadership” has given us Iran-Contra, S & L bailouts, an immoral invasion of Iraq and subsequent war crimes, the 2008 Crash and bailouts for the Wall Street perps who CAUSED it, and, the Trump corruption and cruelty reign.

Government subversion was intentionally done by Nixon, Reaganism, Newt Gingrich, Bush II, the Tea Party, Trumpism; appointing Cabinet people opposed to their job’ opposing public health and environmental protections’ opposing minimal gun control [we’re #1 in deaths!!!]’ reverse Robin Hood tax cuts for the rich [blowing up the national debt]’ the entire corrupt Trump reign.

Much knowledge of this sabotage and corruption is public. Confessions by ex-right wingers and Republican workers added to it. Read 25-year staffer Stuart Stevens’ “It Was All A Lie” or 25-year staffer Mike Lofgren’s “The Party Is Over.”

After the 1933-45 Nazi horrors, Germany rejected all aspects of Nazism. The pivotal question for post-2021 America: will an America, shocked by the January 6, 2021 insurrection reject Trumpist fascism? Consider: pro-Trumpers in other American cities cheered on reports and visuals of the anti-democratic Washington events. Do we WANT to preserve American democracy???

1933-45 German minds were poisoned by the propaganda of Joseph Goebbels. 198-2021 American minds have beeb/are poisoned by the propaganda of the “Fox echo chamber [and all the untaxed reactionary billionaire wealth behind it]. A 2018 Gallop Poll showed the most biased people in America, in worsening order were listeners of: MSNBC, One America News, Fox, Breitbart, Rush Limbaugh. Fox viewing Republicans had more extreme positions than non-Fox viewing Republicans!!!! This propaganda also comes from other right wing sources, especially government-hating corporations and the top 1%. Read Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money” or Nancy MacLean’s “Democracy in Chains.”

Economic inequality is a major source of American discontent. Read the international bestseller, “The Spirit Level” by Wilkinson & Pickett or Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz’s “The Price of Inequality.” 2021 American economic inequality is NOT an accident.

The great tragedy of 2016-2021 America, revealed again on January 6th, is how many good Americans have been grievously deceived by the propaganda and mind control efforts of Trump. the most troubling question is WHY did so many become followers of such an obvious con man? Even basic facts, known and accepted world wide, have had little effect on people trapped inside THE TRUMP CULT.

Steven Hassan’s “The Cult of Trump” supplies many answers, from the perspective of a man trapped for 2 1/2 years in a religious cult. Hassan discusses Trump’s mind control techniques in context of other known cult leaders. Hassan also describes the power of various right wing groups behind Trump, especially the “religious right.” Hassan’s description of Weyrich and Lind’s “Fourth Generation Warfare” is chilling. It is a deliberate “5th Column” effort to subvert and permanently America.

John Dean and Bob Altemeyer’s “Authoritarian Nightmare” spends half the book discussing Trump’s followers – most especially their motivation to support, their motivations to continue following Trump despite all evidence to the contrary. In fact, solid evidence that a person’s candidate is destructive don’t work – their minds are already programmed. Without agreed upon facts, democracy is impossible.

For more perspective, please consider this” Vanity Fair’s 1990 report that Trump’s first wife, Ivana, “told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler’s collected speeches, “My New Order,” which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed.”

And this, from “A Warning” by “Anonymous,” a Trump White House ‘political.’ Page 202″ “Trump revels in the herd-like behavior of his followers. He uses his social media presence to inflame public debates and to despatch supporters to attack politicians who’ve criticized him..” Page 197: “..pandering to common prejudices with false information.. when he does, the ‘false’ part gets ignored by his followers because of their confirmation bias. The ‘information’ part gets absorbed. They are willing to march lockstep if what he says validates what they already believe.”

We didn’t get to January 6, 2021, by accident. 40 years worth of right wing propaganda laid the groundwork. The fuse was deliberately lit by the worst president in American history, the very person the Founders feared.

The Founders had four major fears: abuse of power, slavery, religion, an mobs. The demagogic Trump reign has illustrated them all. But his loyal followers don’t believe this. THIS, more than the disgraced Trump, is America’s biggest problem.

Not all of Trump’s followers are racists [but very many are]. Not all of his followers are religious zealots [but very many are]. Not all of his supporters are top 1% greedheads [but their money, power, connections supported, created, much of 1980-2021 America].

Millions of Trump supporters are victims of lies and misinformation. Many are also victims of the top 1%’s efforts to cut their jobs and wages. The tragedy is that Trump followers actually believe that one of the most egregious top 1% victimizers cared about them – because, his virtual entire pre-presidential business career was filled with cheating people who had worked for him. Trump used their votes to gain the business opportunity of his corrupt reign.

Without considerable changes – meaning sharp reductions in top 1% privileges, incomes, and tax cuts – there will be another January 6th – by a smarter demagogue. That would not be a first. Jules Archer’s “The Plot To Seize The White House” documents the 1933-34 right wing plot to remove President Roosevelt. The plotters were top 1% members and corporations. Their mistake was trying to recruit double Medal of Honor recipient General Smedley Butler. Butler was supposed to lead the “boots on the ground.”Instead, Butler contact Congress. A 1934 Congressional report details the failed plot.

PLease also remember, as detailed in Charles Higham’s “Trading With The Enemy,” an expose of the Nazi-American money plot of 1933-1949. A who’s who of American corporations actively aided Nazi Germany, including during the war. Edwin Black’s “IBM And The Holocaust” documents how IBM made the Nazi machine work – which included killing American soldiers.

The next January 6 plot, carried out by a much smarter demagogue might not fail. If up to 50 million Americans have been deceived by somebody as ignorant and incompetent as Donald J. Trump – what could a real, competent-appearing future American demagogue accomplish?

This is getting old I had a note to give credit to the above authors of The Harper Book of American Quotations for my above blog: “Patriotism – Some Thoughts.” Not enough. Even the excuse of short memory failures won’t cover this, not again. Sorry gentlemen.”

Ambrose Bierce [19060: “Patriotism, n. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of anyone ambitious to illuminate his name. In Dr. Johnson’s famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.”

John Brockenbrough {1807]: “Patriotism is a mighty precious thing when it costs nothing, but the mass of mankind consider it a very foolish thing when it curtails their self-indulgence.”

Henry S. Commager [1954]: “Who are the really disloyal? Those who inflame racial hatreds who sow religious and class dissensions. Those who subvert the Constitution by violating the freedom of the ballot box. Those who make a mockery of majority rule by the use of the filibuster. Those who impair democracy by denying equal educational facilities. Those who frustrate justice by lynch law or by making a farce of jury trials. Those who deny freedom of speech and of press and assembly. Those who demand special favors against the commonwealth. Those who regard public office merely as a source of private gain. Those who would exalt the military over the civilian. Those who for selfish and private purposes stir up national antagonisms and expose the world to the ruin of war.”

Helen Gahagan Douglas {1982]: “You can’t prove you’re an American by waving Old Glory.”

Albert Einstein [19210: “Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.”

Robert G. Ingersoll [1882]: “He loves his country best who strives to make it best.”

George Jean Nathan [1931]: “Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.”

Carl Schurz [1872]: “Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right.”

Benjamin Spock[1968]: “I feel that this do-or-die, my-country-right-or-wrong kind of patriotism is not merely out of place in a nuclear armed world, it is criminal egotism on a monstrous scale. The world won’t be safe until people in all countries recognize it for what it is and, instead of cheering the leader who talks that way, impeach him.”

Adlai Stevenson [1952]: “I venture to suggest that patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.”

E. B. White [1947]: “The principle of demanding an expression of political conformity as the price of a job is the principle of hundred percentism. It is not new and it is the blood brother of witch burning.”

An encyclopedia definition of “fifth column: “The agents..may work in an army, political party…Their activities include..economic subversion, propaganda, agitation..and even assassination, terror, and revolt.”

Consider the following article from Patricia Roberts-Miller in the March 1 ,2019, Washington Spectator ; “Deconstructing Trump>’ These excerpts:

“What surprises a lot of people is why Trump’s perpetual and perhaps compulsive inaccuracy and dishonesty don’t undercut his credibility with his fans…Trump uses demagoguery, and it works because we’re in a culture in which demagoguery is the normal way for people to argue….

“..the rhetoric scholar Kenneth Burke identified Hitler’s main rhetorical strategies….and argued that Hitler’s rhetorical effectiveness came from his relentless repetition of what Burke called the “bastardization of religious forms of thought…..

“What Burke identified wasn’t just how Hitler rhetoric worked, but more broadly, how demagoguery works and is rewarded. Demagoguery displaces policy argumentation with praise of “us” and condemnation of “them,” and it is a prevalent now as it was in Weimar Germany.

“Trump relies on the same rhetoric, and that’s why it should be no surprise that conservative Christians would support Trump. Conservative Christian German overwhelmingly supported Hitler..and conservative Christian Americans previously supported slavery, segregation, and lynching.

As Burke noted, Hitler projected all of his, and all of Germans’ flaws, unto the people of Jewish faith or ethnicity. The famous quote from “Mein Kampf,” that it is better to tell a big lie, and stick to it, is something Hitler accuses Jews of doing, even as he is doing exactly that……Demagoguery depends on the notion that everything can be reduced to “us” versus “them.”………

“Burke argued that Hitler bastardized the principle of inborn dignity by asserting that such dignity was born only to certain people. That same bastardization surfaces in the notion of Christianity being racially determined and is behind the the rhetoric of Christian identity, conservative Christian defenses of slavery and segregation, and the kind of right-leaning Christian groups that support Trump.”…..

In fact it’s fairly easy to look at Trump’s rhetoric and find parallels with the rhetorical strategies of demagoguery that Burke identified. Trump repeats the same points, regardless of whether they’ve been debunked; intermittently claims that faith in him is all we need; promotes economic policies that have never worked, but if you believe in the will, should work; materializes evil in Democrats..; projects his own failings onto his enemies…; insists on the entitlement of his in-group to everything; and promises to make America great again….

What matters about Trump..isn’t actually that he uses demagoguery. What matters is that his rise to power was fueled by a demagoguery that reflected the racist, xenophobic, misogynist, and authoritarian values of the GOP – values that previously had surfaced only in dog whistles…the GOP media machine didn’t condemn him for it. They justified it, promoted it, and repeated it. *******************!!!!!!!!**********

“I spend a sad amount of time in anti-liberal media zones, and it’s striking to see how talking points seamlessly disseminate from Trump through his water-carrying friends at Fox and the hate media to the various Facebook pages and sub-Reddit threads in social media…What is clear is that Trump can count on a supportive media machine that will justify anything he does.”

“What happens in a culture of demagoguery is that people think in zero-sum terms about politics: whether our country ends up with a good policy matters less than ensuring the winner is “us”[our faction] – or at least we can make them lose…That is the objective of Trump’s rhetoric and the rhetoric of his loyal media.”

***For perspective, consider this: “Vanity Fair’s” 1990 report that Trump’s first wife, Ivana, “told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler’s collected speeches, “My New Order,” which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed.”

*****For perspective, consider this from “A Warning,” by ‘Anonymous’ – a Trump White House “political”, page 202: “Trump revels in the herd-like behavior of his followers. He uses his social media presence to inflame public debates and to dispatch supporters to attack politicians who’ve criticized him…”
…..page 197: “..pandering to common prejudices…When he does, the ‘false’ part gets ignored by his followers because of their confirmation bias. The ‘information’ part gets absorbed. They are willing to march lockstep if what he says validates what they already believe.” ****************!!!!!!************

The above post “America, some Thoughts” were words from “The Harper Book of American Quotations” by Carruth and Ehrlich. Sorry.