Two weeks before the Iowa caucuses, in January 2016, the longshot Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump bragged to a crowd in Sioux City: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn`t lose any voters, okay? It`s, like, incredible.
At the time Trump`s prescient, and indeed prophetic statement, was derided as just another boast from the reality TV charlatan.
But now that statement is recited with awe and reverence by his fanatical base the same way Christians recite the words of Jesus recorded in the Gospels.
Two and a half years later Trump has survived multiple scandals and outrageous statements that would have ended the presidential campaign of any other candidate, and would have led to the impeachment of any other president.
Trumpism isn`t an alt-right offshoot of the Republican Party so much as it is an evangelical cult. A Trump stump speech, and it`s instructive that he still regularly holds campaign rallies, is like a church service. Trump rails against the media and Democrats the same way a televangelist condemns gays and godless liberals. A preacher`s sermon might be punctuated with “Amens” and “Halleluiahs” by the faithful, Trump`s speech will be interrupted by chants of “Lock Her Up” and “Build the Wall.”
You can`t use logic or reason to appeal to a member of a cult, he will just stare at you with a blank expression and quote from his holy book, and you can`t convince a Trump supporter that he`s worshipping a False Messiah, he will just stare at you with an evil expression and recite a Trump tweet.
The Grand Old Party has been taken over by a cult, and in order to save its soul, Republicans must impeach Trump, and excommunicate members of his heretical sect.
Republicans can`t afford to appease or compromise with Trump and his base without destroying everything they stand for, they must smite these heretics hip and thigh.
Trump has stood in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shot the independent judiciary, the media, and our Constitution, and he hasn`t lost any support. We must remove Trump by any means necessary.
Follow Robert Paul Reyes on Twitter: http://twitter.com/robertpaulreyes