Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has had Donald Trump's number from the beginning. During her 2016 presidential campaign against him, she was one of the first major political figures to acknowledge the radical, hate-fueled nature of much of Trump's voting base. She was right then, and she's right now: In a CNN interview, Clinton mused that "maybe there needs to be a formal deprogramming" of Trump's "cult members."
There wasn't this little tale of extremism waving, you know, wagging the dog of the Republican Party as it is today. And sadly, so many of those extremists, those MAGA extremists, take their marching orders from Donald Trump, who has no credibility left by any measure. He's only in it for himself. He's now defending himself in civil actions and criminal actions.
And when do they break with him? You know, because at some point, you know, maybe there needs to be a formal deprogramming of the cult members. But something needs to happen. [...]
At this point, I think, sadly, he will still likely be the nominee. And we have to defeat him, and we have to defeat those who are the election deniers, as we did in 2020 and 2022. And we have to, you know, just be smarter about how we are trying to empower the right people inside the Republican Party.
Clinton is right. Since Trump supporters—and Republicans in general—have rallied behind extremist acts like trying to overthrow the government based on Trump's marching orders, it's a cult. And the only way back out of the cult will be to adopt the deprogramming strategies used when rescuing victims of other charlatans who believe themselves to be god-kings.
Of course, it's clear that she wasn't talking about forced reeducation camps or anything like that. She was musing over how those "formal" deprogramming techniques might translate into political strategies for defeating Republican extremism—because the solution isn’t clear.
Naturally, this sent the exact people she was talking about into absolute fits. "Deplorable Moment times 10!" tweeted former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEneny, whose career depends on ratcheting up panic inside the extremist Republican base.
As for evidence that Trumpism remains a cult, look no further than Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel (née Romney), who confusingly called Democrats "chaos and pro-criminal" as the Fox News chyron screamed, "HRC CALLS FOR 'DEPROGRAMMING' OF TRUMP SUPPORTERS."
McDaniel is the chair of a party currently on its way to nominating a man facing 91 charges in four jurisdictions, a man whose attempts to retain power after losing an election resulted in violence inside the U.S. Capitol. With all due respect, shut up.
Republicans will likely try their best to stoke outrage on this one, but Clinton's right. Republicans have grown so delusional that they abandoned all pretense of a platform beyond "whatever Donald Trump says." They've become hoax-dependent, crime-supporting, and sedition-backing, and they increasingly muse on television about the possible need for civil war if conservatives do not win elections. Trump can stand on a stage and call for cops to shoot suspected shoplifters, and Republican conventioneers scream their approval. His attacks on judges and prosecutors seem transparently constructed to fuel death threats or actual acts of terror. Calls for domestic terror are now rote in pro-Trump circles.
Hillary Clinton is no longer running for office, so Republican outrage cycles will largely be futile here, except as fear-fodder for the cult's followers. If Republican pundits want a list of other nonconservatives who think they're cult leaders using hoaxes and mass delusion to brainwash the gullible into violence-supporting extremism, just tell us all where to sign.
Sign the petition: Trump attempted a coup on Jan. 6. He is a clear and present danger to democracy.
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