I watched a documentary recently that isn’t related at all to partisan politics. Yer something in it reminded me of the Trump-era Republican Party.

You know what it was that reminded me of the Trump GOP?
The Nation of Islam.

Let me explain.

In 1964, after making a terrible comment about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X was basically kicked out of the Nation of Islam. He began speaking out about some serious moral issues exhibited by the Nation of Islam’s leader, Elijah Muhammad.

Malcolm X revealed that Elijah Muhammad, the supposed religious leader who was 67 years old, had 8 children by 6 different teenage girls.

You’d think Malcolm X’s revelation of this terrible thing would cause outrage at Elijah Muhammad among these supposed religious folks. Nope.

Instead, members of the group became outraged at Malcolm X for speaking out against their leader. They made excuses for Elijah Muhammad’s behavior or refused to believe it. The propaganda outlets controlled by the group demonized Malcolm X. He began getting death threats.

And ultimately, Malcolm X was killed by members of the Nation of Islam because they were outraged that he had spoken out against the group’s leader.

The moral misbehavior by their leader didn’t matter to most of them at all.

Cult behavior.

Elijah Muhammad had total control of this group. Control over the messaging and propaganda they heard. He had a lot of people who jealously defended him against any criticism and who attacked the guy who spoke out against him even though many of them had loved him not long before

So this brings us back to the Trump GOP. For a lot in this particular cult, it doesn’t really matter what Trump does or whether it’s right or wrong. What matters is that people are attacking him. Including some from within the group. And that can’t be tolerated.

Cult behavior, willful blindness and tribalism are human behaviors that aren’t bounded by demographic barriers.

And when I saw the documentary about what happened in this religious group in the 1960’s, I immediately thought about the GOP in 2021.