By Dr David Laing Dawson
The question hinges on what is it that is perceived/projected into any cult leader, despot, dictator that allows the cultivation of such a mindless, unquestioning loyalty among his accrued followers.
As I have written before, this mindless human trait allowing for the unconditional surrender of self to a leader must have had, at least until democracy evolved, some survival value. Hence it continues, like many human traits, despite the fact it no longer confers tribal or personal or world survival value.
But will it fade for Trump after he is out of office?
My hopeful prediction is yes.
Trump does not have the gift of drama and theatrics of the evangelical leaders, cult leaders, who are successful despite having no actual power or control over life, death, illness or prosperity.
Out of office he does not have the mystique, the folk tales, and the fearsome band of warriors with which a Castro surrounds himself in the mountains.
He does have the gift of bringing out the worst of human nature – that sense of entitlement, a sense of unfairness, a sense of victim hood, the hatred of others who are impeding my success. He also has the gift of being able to take our very human existential anxiety and directing it at some specific other. The same gift Hitler and Stalin had, and Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones.
But I do not think Trump has what it takes to be a king in waiting for four years, maintaining his following with an army in the mountains, with an underground press, with the sacrifice required to break bread with his troops around the campfire.
Without the oval office, without the mystique of a revolutionary leader, without any real, articulated way he might lead all to a better life, without any power, and actually being endlessly litigated instead, and without a wife who could now don peasant clothes and campaign beside him among the people, his star will fade.
I hope.
But America does astonish at times with its evangelical fervour, its Rambo proud boys, its racist scars, its celebrity culture, and its constant failure to join all other wealthy, advanced nations in the provision of health care for all, social security for all, reasonable gun control, and good public free education for all.