Donald Trump hugged the American flag after walking on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) to deliver a two-hour speech where he proceeded to denigrate everything Old Glory represents. He lambasted Congress, the Department of Justice, spread lies and conspiracy theories; he basically delivered an address that would be greeted with wild applause in Moscow.

It was a stream-of-consciousness diatribe, naturally it was riddled with expletives, and the conservative and evangelical audience couldn`t get enough of it.

I don`t want to parse or fact check Trump`s rant, suffice to say it was vintage Trump bullshit, only it dragged on longer than usual.

I want to zero in on Trump shameless stunt of humping the American flag before he started spewing his toxic views. When a religious or political leader is addressing his cult he doesn`t have to present a rational and logical basis for his philosophy. He`s cognizant that his followers have already ceded their thinking capabilities to him, and will accept anything he says as the Gospel truth.

In lieu of apologetics and reasoned discourse he will engage in shameless antics like embracing the flag. Those of us who haven`t swallowed the Kool-Aid will exclaim: OMG what a joke! Who would fall for such a corny and shallow display of patriotism? The answer is quite obvious, the millions of white evangelicals who voted for the bastard.

What lesson can we glean from Trump`s embrace of the flag, and the enthusiastic reaction from the CPAC audience? Namely this, you can`t reason with MAGA devotees, it`s as foolhardy a task as trying to convince Nazis that Hitler was a genocidal monster. White evangelicals are a lost cause, even atheists are praying that hell is real and that they will burn forever.

Forget the MAGA cultists, we must reach out to Independents and rational Republicans (There`s still a few of them left), and plead with them to join Democrats in voting out the abomination in 2020.