The Trump Era Isn’t Going Away
The New Yorker’s Amy Davidson Sorkin writes, “It’s tempting to see the Gaetz affair as the last shudder of the era of Donald Trump, but the political culture that the two men represent won’t easily be swept away.”
That’s for sure. There is still a huge market for government run by brash, mean-spirited racists who have little if any regard for the truth. Fox News attracts 26 million people every week. That’s not going to change, regardless of what happens to Gaetz.
Mere conservatism doesn’t get the job done for Republicans at this point. The party presents itself as the only thing that’s preventing the United States from being overrun by immigrants, who slip across the southern border like water through a sieve, and eventually wind up voting (legally or fraudulently) for the socialist party that gives them free things. This continues ad infinitum until America looks like Venezuela.
The reason the GOP is being likened to a cult is clear: you either believe these things without question, or you’re gone. If you don’t believe the election was stolen, get lost. God help you if you insinuate that the leader is a flawed person.
So, back to Sorkin’s point: this won’t be swept away, because it’s not based on truth or reason; it’s based on belief, and this country has tens of millions of people who cling to this belief as if it were oxygen.