This is a very interesting op ed...

[SummerSnow]

The dangerous cult of Donald Trump

By REZA ASLAN
NOV 06, 2017

I am not the first person to point this out: There’s been a cultish quality to President Trump’s most ardent supporters. He seemed to acknowledge the phenomenon when he boasted that he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” and not lose voters.

Throughout the campaign, and in personal appearances since then, Trump has harnessed the kind of emotional intensity from his base that is more typical of a religious revival meeting than a political rally, complete with ritualized communal chants ("Lock her up!&quot .

As we approach the one-year anniversary of Trump's election victory, the zeal of some of his followers seems increasingly akin to a full-fledged cult.

I use the word "cult" in its pejorative sense, meaning a deeply insular social group bound together by extreme devotion to a charismatic leader. Such groups tend to exhibit a few common characteristics.

They are usually formed around an individual whom they've elevated to prophetic and near divine status.

During the campaign, Franklin Graham,Trump's most enthusiastic evangelical Christian supporter, dismissed his many moral failings by comparing him favorably to the flawed patriarchs and prophets of the Bible: Abraham, Moses and David.

* This is a long article, continued on next post