In their never-ending search for an anti-Trump narrative that resonates with the American people, and upon which they can campaign in the run-up to the 2020 election, the Democrats and their media allies are testing a new one – that Trump supporters are cultists. Cultists being cemented in the average person’s mind as people being on the fringes of society if not downright lunatics.

There has been a run on those allegations over the past couple of months as summarized here:

The number of commentators, news outlets, and public figures who have compared Trump to a cult leader and his political movement to a cult is ever-growing. The Utne Reader wrote of the “Cult of Trump,” while the National Journal warned of “Trump’s Cult” overwhelming the Republican party. References to Trumpism as a cult or Trump as a cult leader litter the pages of The Washington Post, The Economist, Los Angeles Times, GQ, and Vanity Fair, not to mention online media such as Salon and The Daily Kos. Many of these are liberal or politically moderate publications, but conservatives have gotten in on the act too. Tennessee Republican Senator Bob Corker called Trump’s leadership a “cultish thing,” and the GOP in a “cult-like situation.” Even Donald Trump, Jr., responding to Corker’s criticism, seemed to accept the comparison of his father’s leadership to a cult. “You know what? If it’s a cult, it’s because they like what my father’s doing,” he told Fox & Friends.

Read the rest of the article here.

And of course, CNN had to get in on the game, too, as on Sunday, Brian Stelter interviewed Steve Hassan, who authored the book “The Cult of Trump.” Redstate colleague Nick Arama did a nice job in throwing the allegations right back in CNN’s face here.

Somehow, Democrats’ allegations about Trump’s cultists seem to smack of desperation to me. That’s all they’ve got? Well, their impeachment gambit doesn’t seem to be working too well, does it? But I digress. Let’s take a look at some well-known cults and see if what the Democrats claim makes even a lick of sense.

For definition purposes, I happen to like this description of a cult: obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or veneration for a person, principle, or thing. Now there are a lot of websites that describe cults, cultist behavior, and how to “de-program” people who were caught up in a cult. Here is one example.

Personal anecdote time. Back in the ‘80s, I knew an older gent who, over a period of time, became enthralled with/by the Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who ran a commune in The Dalles, Oregon. Here is a summary of that cult that is undergoing a sort of resurgence lately. As part of his “absorption” into the cult, over time, my friend began wearing drab reddish-colored clothing (shirts and slacks) to work every single day for months. One day, he literally disappeared from the scene. Six months later, he returned to his job after having liquidated all of his worldly possessions in order to essentially buy his admittance into the commune in Oregon. He was fairly well off, and it was quite shocking to learn he gave it all up to the Bhagwan. He didn’t talk much about it after his return other than to sheepishly admit that it was the most bizarre and stupidest thing he’d ever done in his entire life, and that the blind homage paid by the cult members to the Bhagwan was ultimately what opened his eyes.

Now the Rajneeshees may be a more extreme form of cult, but I would argue that there are all sorts of cults across a broad spectrum of American society. I would wager you’ve run into a few cultists yourself. How might you identify a cult member? Here are a few characteristics:

• If someone is excessively zealous and displays an unquestioning commitment to a leader of a worldview, belief system, or esoteric “truth,” you may be dealing with a cultist.
• If you talk to someone impervious to any fact, logic or science that is even the slightest bit contrarian to a given belief system, you may be dealing with a cultist.
• If someone gets emotional and irrational when a speculative belief or belief system is challenged with facts, you may be dealing with a cultist.
• If someone displays total allegiance to a leader/concept/belief system/”truth,” you may be dealing with a cultist.
• If someone won’t tolerate even the SLIGHTEST dissent with or critical inquiry about a belief or belief system without emotionally defending it, you may be dealing with a cultist.
• If someone insults you when you provide factual counter-arguments to his esoteric belief system, you may be dealing with a cultist.
• If someone uses exclusively emotional arguments to either persuade you to accept a belief system or worldview, you may be dealing with a cultist.
• If someone essentially lives inside an “information cocoon” isolated from reality and refuses to acknowledge real-world information sources and facts, you may be dealing with a cultist.

And so forth. Now people are free to do whatever they want, including joining a cult if that is what “floats their boat” – as long as they don’t harm themselves or others, that is. And that includes psychological harm, as far as I’m concerned.

I’ve got my list of cults; you’ve got yours. Since I’m doing the writing, I get to detail my list of the more extreme versions of cults:

• Scientology. My wife watched ALL of the Leah Remini series on them; I watched more than I could stomach. No doubt about it. They don’t tolerate apostates very well, too. Watch the A&E TV series here (my wife was captivated).
• NXIVM and sex slaves. Holy cow, those people are bat-sh!t crazy (and evil)! Hopefully, justice will be served to all of them. I wonder if Democrat US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s connections to Clare Bronfman and the cult will ever see the light of day? Read more here.
• David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and the Waco massacre. Their demise is yet another indelible stain on the Clinton presidency. (A damn sight worse than the one on that blue dress!) They sure as hell didn’t deserve to die! Read more here.
• Heaven’s Gate and the Hale-Bopp comet. Remember Marshall Applewhite and the 38 people who committed suicide at his request in 1997? Read more here.
• Jim Jones and the People’s Temple. Over 900 of his followers committed mass suicide in Guyana in 1978. This is where the phrase “drink the Kool-Aid” originated, grotesquely speaking. Read more here.
• Hare Krishna. The “men in orange” used to be ubiquitous, especially in airports in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Little did the rest of us know about their sordid tales. Read more here.
• Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult. These clowns released sarin nerve gas in a Tokyo subway in 1995. Supposedly, the attack was “a holy attempt to elevate the doomed souls of this world to a higher spiritual stage.” Insanity. Read more here.

These outfits are the more recent – and extreme and violent – examples; there are tons more. There are a lot of other groups that fit the bill, too, as far as I’m concerned – especially in the 21^st century American political realm. Let’s get to THAT particular list next:

• The Anthropogenic Global Warming crowd. Some call it a religion; I prefer to call it a cult. Its members exhibit ALL of the characteristics listed above! My go-to resource for “all things climate change” over the last 20 years is wattsupwiththat(dot)com. This posting about climate change radicals being cultists is a great read.
• The pro-abortion radicals. Those feminazis are way out there. They can’t be bargained with. They can’t be reasoned with. They don’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are politically neutralized, and late-term abortion is legalized everywhere. [Apologies to Kyle Reese and “The Terminator.”] Read more about their death cult here.
• If PETA isn’t a cult, what is it? Mankind has been omnivorous from the very beginning, as anthropologists have determined (our ancestors ate whatever was available). I kind of like this opinion piece (among many on the subject).
• Radical feminists. Holy cow are these people cultists! Their incessant attacks on men and the “patriarchy” are unhinged, and the damage they’ve wrought on American culture is YUUUUGE and continuing. Read all about ‘em, early on, here.
• The Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS)-afflicted. They are legion, and they are lunatics! And it’s gotten to the point that researchers are examining the phenomenon. This study claims that some of the TDS-afflicted are merely virtue-signaling and not really crazy. Yeah, right.
• The Democrat Party. They’ve all gone bonkers! From late-term to post-birth abortion (co-opting the feminazi cult). The Green New Deal (co-opting the AGW nut-cases). Socialism for all (co-opting the Communist cult). Etc., etc. Heck, they’re a cult of cults, for all practical purposes, all in service of their crass personal goals of complete political power and domination over all Americans – with any topic politicized whenever the situation warrants. Never mind doing anything to preserve the Republic or to actually benefit Americans. And they REALLY don’t tolerate strays. EVERYONE in the Democrat Party sings from the same script; that includes the Democrat activists in the media who propagate the daily Democrat narrative in precisely the same wording. The media montages are all Democrat-focused and orchestrated by Media Matters daily, a leftist media outfit about whom you may have heard! Here’s one example among many of how they roll.

In reflecting on the behavior of people in these politically-oriented cults, it appears that we are at a point where any facts that challenge the theories/narratives/conventional wisdom associated with the Democrats and other assorted leftists are either shouted down or ignored. This is the behavior of cultists, as characterized above.

The notion that we can look into men’s hearts and souls and divine what they really believe is absurd. All we can do is observe, analyze, synthesize, and report – and be prepared to change our opinions if the facts warrant! Regarding cultists of the political variety, just because someone says something doesn’t make it true. Just because a narrative is endlessly repeated by many people in the media doesn’t make it true. Facts and evidence are what prove something to be true. And just because someone is member of one of the Left’s political cults, including a former president (Obama), a failed presidential candidate (Hillary), or a retired Obama-appointed FOGO (e.g., Clapper, McRaven, Stavridis, etc.), doesn’t make that person immune to criticism based on the facts.

I’ve run into a TON of “political cultists” on social media and in everyday life. It makes me wonder if America was ALWAYS filled with conspiracists and cultists, or whether this is merely a modern phenomenon. I don’t know the answer, but to me, they’re easy to spot!

As for being labeled a “Trump cultist” by my political enemies on the Left, I will wear that as a badge of honor. Damn straight that I support a President who delivers on his political promises, operates with the boundaries set forth in the Constitution (unlike his predecessor), appoints conservative federal judges, tackles the Communist Chinese threat, cuts taxes and regulations, restores military readiness and morale, and exposes the Deep State and Swamp for all to see! How about you?

The end.