So the answer is essentially “because they’re bad people”. I would criticize it for being an overly-simplified black and white view of the world (I certainly felt that way once) if I hadn’t just lived through eight years where every single point of evidence proved that simplistic idea true in increasingly undeniable fashion.
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No. Establishment of churches is also antithetical to a republic.
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Like, it’s a whole thing, kinda French and all, but that concept from French republicanism is the actual foundation of Irish republicanism and how and why Irish republicanism was created by Protestant Irish people.
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And very much not the foundation of Iranian republicanism.
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… one of the two “major parties” in this country is now being run according to the same principles as an outlaw biker gang 
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The poorer the citizens of a country become, especially in an ostensibly rich country, the more they look for an authoritarian leader. This is a feature, not a bug.
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That’s a long conversation but I dispute that.
Iranian republicanism was hijacked by nationalism, which is not incompatible with established religion, but the US and UK we’re big movers in that.
The Iranian “republic” was eased into existence as a deliberately anti republican state. Because republicans tended to be… really quite socialist.
Same happened in Ireland, the British armed the anti republican nationalists to crate the state that currently exists. The French warned that exactly the same thing was going to happen in Iran but nobody cared.
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That’s a good one. My favorite goto is the German Democratic Republic, aka East Germany, which was neither democratic nor a republic. Or the Holy Roman Empire, which was not holy, not Roman, and not an empire.
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I figure MAGAs are more likely to get the NASCAR reference than one to the Holy Roman Empire.
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Wait, is that a new verse?
The Second Coming
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Our job is to slay that beast before it gets to our Bethlehem. This is truly our greatest task, for our children if nothing else.
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Probably so. It’s a good analogy. The cars in stock car races were originally stock, thus the name. Similarly, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party was originally socialist. Until Hitler took it over. They probably still won’t believe that, though. I think it’s impossible at this point to get through to 99.99% of MAGA supporters.
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If the Trump brand is impunity, will people abandon him if he finally goes to prison, or does it take moe consequences than that?
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If history is a guide, many will simply see him as a martyr. Hitler was able to turn his prison time into an asset, but he was also younger and had more stamina than the reality TV celebrity does.
On the other hand, by making it all about personality, his support will slowly fade once he’s gone. This is less of the Kim dynasty in North Korea, it’s more Berlusconi or Franco. Other fascists will rise up to pick clean his corpse.
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He is their “spirit animal” … embodying all the traits they want to have.
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why MAGA cult adores Trump: he’s “openly corrupt, a liar, racist, and sadistic”
I think they adore Trump because he is everything they want to be - but can’t:
- Rich (at least richer than them)
- Educated (we know he has a paper degree)
- Opinionated (says things they won’t in public)
- Morally corrupt (this one is the kicker - in a repressed Christian conservative environment - this doesn’t openly fly. But you can bet they wish it did.)
- In Charge™ - the bossman concept is strongly attached to the above. They long for a Boss - it’s been ingrained into their very psyche).
- Above the law (no consequences for hurting The Other)
- etc
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From the flag in the picture: “No man, no woman, no commie can stump him”
So, uh, commie is a gender now?
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" The Cruelty Is the Point
President Trump and his supporters find community by rejoicing in the suffering of those they hate and fear."
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100% in line with Bob Altermeyer’s “The Authoritarians”, and from another angle George Lakoff’s “Don’t Think of An Elephant”.
Some percentage of every population wants a corrupt fascist authoritarian, as long as it feels like he’s for them.
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And/or not caring what happens as long as they personally make money from it.
Potato, oligarchy
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