Americas Cult Problem

Since Donald Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying records to keep damaging information from 2016 voters, the reaction from his followers has been…interesting. A few years ago, they were wildly cheering the prospect of locking Hillary Clinton up for some imaginary crimes. But now that Dear Leader is an actual, real-life convicted felon, his followers deem it not disqualifying, but a badge of honor. Some have even taken it up a notch, claiming they’re now more unwaveringly devoted; a few have even stated they’d go to jail with him.

With a passionate belief in Trump’s every grift, fraud, lie, and patently outrageous claim or threat, it’s now clear that part of our population is officially in a cult. Psychology experts have laid out the signs that constitute a cult, and MAGA ticks almost every box. No fact, no logic, literally nothing changes their mind. We’re way past “shooting someone on Fifth Avenue”; Trump could filet and eat a kitten on live TV, and they’d want the recipe.

We’ve seen cults in the past. Nazi Germany was one. The Manson Family, Jonestown, Waco, Heaven’s Gate – there have always been weak-minded people who somehow find purpose in a strongman. It never ends well.

So, the question is, how do we break the spell among some of our fellow citizens? Of course, some will keep the faith to the end. But there are a few who appear to be shaken by these first convictions (there will likely be more on the way); they may be ready to return to objective reality. How do we help get them there?

Let’s look to Germany to see how they broke the Nazi spell. About 10 million Germans had been members of the party with even more involved in various related organizations. “De-Nazification” consisted of several steps. The first, most public step was holding high-level party members responsible via the Nuremberg trials. The world was shocked by what was revealed. We may see a similar reaction among MAGA when the evidence around January 6^th, the 2020 GA election interference, and Trump’s theft of classified documents comes out at trial.

Another step in Germany’s healing process was to painstakingly examine lower-level people in the movement, sometimes via the courts. Depending on the seriousness of their involvement, they were given different levels of punishment, such as detention, restrictions on travel, or performing reconstruction work. It took time, but it was necessary. Again, some of Trump’s loudest mouthpieces in Congress are long overdue in paying for their parts stirring various pots, especially 1/6.

A somewhat controversial step in de-Nazification involved confiscating or destroying any art or media promoting Nazism or anything militaristic. Thirty-thousand book titles were banned, with possession deemed a punishable offense.

When deprogramming the Trump cult, a lot is going to need to be unwound. All the tweets, all the dark message boards, his complicit media partners. Trump himself will have to be silenced, at least for a time, so he can’t keep fanning the flames with his rhetoric. It will definitely be a complicated process.

Personally, I’m also in favor of old-fashioned shaming and shunning. I certainly don’t advocate anything violent, but the cult needs regular reminding how utterly misled they were in backing this dangerous demagogue. None of this will happen overnight and it won’t be pleasant. But like rebuilding the South after the Civil War or Germany after WWII, we must rebuild some normalcy after this strange, cultish era. Our fellow citizens (and our collective mental health) deserve it.

Cindy Grogan is a writer, lover of history and "Star Trek" (TOS), and hardcore politics junkie. There was that one time she campaigned for Gerald Ford (yikes), but ever since, she's been devoted to Democratic and progressive policies.