Cults of personality

Krugman observes that while the personality cult around Trump within the GOP is particularly extreme, some version of it has happened with every post-Ford Republican president except George H.W. Bush (although I do wish the First Church of George Herbert Walker Christ was real):

On Memorial Day the New York Times published an article with the headline “Trump is the only person who can save America, according to his cabinet.” The article offered a quantitative analysis of senior-official sycophancy. As the article notes, Donald Trump likes to hold long, televised cabinet meetings. In these meetings, according to the Times,

On average, at least one of every six sentences either flattered Mr. Trump, gave him credit or criticized his political opponents.

This “Dear Leader” treatment is unprecedented in American history. Regardless of how successful, no previous president has been showered with this kind of obsequiousness and deification.

Outside the MAGA bubble, Americans are increasingly seeing Trump as the loser he is. He has failed on every front. Manufacturing employment is down, inflation is outpacing wages, consumer sentiment is at a record low, mortgage rates are up. Trump’s war of choice has led to utter humiliation. According to current polls, Americans are giving Trump extremely low approval ratings, both overall and on every major issue — even border security…

…Inside the MAGA fantasy bubble, however, Trump’s reign is hailed, almost literally, as the Second Coming.

Some of this reflects Trump’s own personality. His inner self is obviously a bottomless pit of insecurity. He self-medicates by demanding Pyongyang-level flattery, destroying national monuments and replacing them with garish, vulgar trash, persecuting critics and comedians, and starting stupid wars.

But Trump isn’t the first public figure to seek self-aggrandizement in an attempt to fill his inner emptiness. The important question is why the American right — not just his pathetic cabinet, but the whole movement, including the 6 extremistsRepublicans on the Supreme Court — has been so willing to empower him. And that’s a question much bigger than Trump himself.

The truth is that the right wing attempt to build a cult of personality around a deeply unpresidential figure, while it has reached new levels of absurdity under Trump, isn’t new. Republicans tried to do the same thing for George W. Bush…

…And readers of a certain age may recall that the right’s canonization of Ronald Reagan began while he was still in office.

It’s tempting to dismiss personality-cult theater as trivial, but it isn’t. When prominent people in a republic act as if they were living in a monarchy, the republic increasingly becomes a monarchy in reality.

It’s hard to imagine the idea that George W. Bush was a heroic leader could have ever gotten traction, but those of us who lived through it know that it’s true.

The interesting thing here is that while Reagan remains a canonical Republican figure, the Bush personality cult didn’t even survive his second term — I believe he’s never spoken at a Republican convention since leaving office, and of course Trump telling the truth about the “he kept us safe” myth during the 2015 primaries and only increasing his popularity with the Republican base symbolized his permanent persona non grata turn. My guess is that Trump will follow the Reagan path rather than the W one, but if his second term goes badly enough, who knows?