Cults are hollow places where only one voice is heard. It may come through many mouths, but only one voice is allowed to be heard.
I'm trying to find a way to explain, and maybe I can't, why it is I get flashbacks to a horrible event when I see Rush Limbaugh bouncing up and down, waving his arms, gleefully wallowing in adoration, his eyes glazed over with a 'high'.
A man who clearly bullies his party by publicly humiliating anyone that disagrees with him, until they grovel, publicly, to apologize.
Like a king, he keeps his foot on their necks and then, magnanimously, he allows them to crawl away, thanking him for his kindness as they genuflect out the door.
Anyone that tries to claim leadership of that party, is pounced on by his rotundness and publicly thrashed.
The party is in ruins and he flogs them, with his supposed 24 Million listeners, which is, apparently, more like 1.4 million at any given time (plenty enough, but why lie or exaggerate the stats unless he thinks it is not enough?) ...and they cheer him on as their messiah.
All his radical ideas failed and he has no other ideas, won't allow other ideas and they are cheering him on? "Lemmings! To the Rescue! Follow me!" and over the cliffs, into the seas of oblivion, they go. Rush, yelling into his microphone, exact orders of how they are supposed to do it.
People who should be able to speak their mind in that party, only speak off the record and anonymously for fear that he will take offense. They cheer him because they fear him. If they don't fervently demonstrate their their loyalty to him, their place in the party will be in jeopardy.
He's a drug addict! He lies! His ideas failed and failed BIG TIME. But no one dares even so much as hint that they disagree that he is the defacto leader of the GOP???
The Other Cult Leader
It reminds me, unfortunately, of Jonestown. The last episode. Where all the followers had been for months, pounded by the voice of their once beloved leader, 24/7 with his diatribes, his preaching and his rantings. He too, was loudly applauded and adored when he took the stage. They were afraid not to. They competed to demonstrate their adoration of him as he bounced on the stage, waving his arms, eyes glazed over with the rush of power.
He had no love for those people, his people. He had nothing but contempt for them and they were afraid of him. So afraid that as he told them to drink the Kool Aid and to force it down the throats of their children and babies, they did it.
He kept ranting over the PA system that he was the only one who could save them. That they had to do what he was telling them to do because without him they were nothing and belonged nowhere. He told them as he was murdering them, that he was saving them.
Those who survived, escaped by running through the jungles, hiding. They did not know who was coming to rescue them and who was coming to murder them. Some died from that fear. When they emerged, traumatized and confused, the horror stories came out.
The images flash over each other: Limbaugh/Jones. I am thinking that what was once a bright shining party, a healthy opposition has devolved into a cult of personality and they are doomed to extinguish their own lights by listening to the one voice that has the microphone, and is telling them what to think and what to say and what to do. He allows no dissent. He publicly humiliates those who dare not worship him.
The Party drank the Kool Aid. They drank it a long time ago when they abdicated their right to think for themselves and became part of a system that relies more and more, now solely on, the illusion that must be cast and recast daily as it falls apart in the light of day.
Newt Gingrich, possibly the most adept politician ever to be in the Republican party denounced Rush Limbaugh and despite the fat man's rantings, and scathing diatribes that have followed, Newt has not apologized.
I don't like Newt. His a fraud in my book. A hypocrite of the lowest order. But he knows the game and he knows the Emperor has no clothes. And he knows that if he stands up to him, the fat man will tumble. When he does, those who are desperate for another leader to follow, will likely follow him.
Newt knows one when he sees one.
The power is failing. The fat man is wetting himself, unable to prove his omnipotence he is becoming more and more visible as impotent.
It is my guess that party members will quietly drift away now. Some will stay and drink the Kool Aid, but the magic of being in line with the bully has lost its potency.
Yes, they had it coming for handing over their power to a madman, drug addict, who used his forum to scare the common man, inflame race hate, and worse. More and more, they relied on smears. In doing so, they got it all over them and they stink of it.
Yes, they have it coming.
But I don't like it. With the Republicans imploding and the party in tatters, it may never come back again. If it does, it will take a very long time. During the time that it takes for them to let go of the poison, rebuild and reclaim their spot, if they can; or for a third party to emerge powerful enough to balance our houses, we run the very risk of having one party too powerful.
We may or may not trust those who are in charge now, but what about the next one we elect? Will all that power go to their head? Will the lack of a healthy opposition lead us to where there is no dissent?
At some point down the road, will we be drinking the Kool Aid or running through the jungles, not knowing what is right, or wrong; who is friend and who is foe?
We need a healthy two party system. We need a healthy opposition. We need to be challenged and for flaws to be revealed and courses corrected through that process.
There are some who say "Do away with all the parties". I can see how they would think that. But it won't change anything. In fact, it might even make it worse.
I would be interested to know how you see this one. Drop me a line.
Meanwhile, I keep checking my own cupboards, to make sure there is no Kool Aid in there.
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