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Are there previous historical examples of cult-like followings of US political candidates? (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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(This post was intended for [email protected], but as it seems they don't allow text posts, I'm posting it here)

This post will likely not go over well with everyone and some people may not agree with the premise of the question. Mods please remove if not allowed.

I am curious if the MAGA-esque approach to politics is new for the US, or if there have been other examples of similar political movements which may be considered "cult-like". To better define what I mean, here are some examples:

Large amounts of signs bearing a candidate's name being shown by single individuals (e.g. big trucks covered in Trump signs everywhere)
Use of a candidate name over the US flag
Use of a kind of supporter uniform (e.g. the red MAGA hat)
The "alternative facts" of MAGA, where debate can be impossible because supporters believe anyone who is a detractor must be lying
In some cases, voter intimidation or coercion from staunch supporters

It seems to me that some of this is new but I'd love to hear other thoughts. I have heard and seen many relatively obvious parallels to German politics in the 20s-40s, but I'm specifically wondering if anything similar has ever been seen in the US before.

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[–] [email protected] 105 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

People still talk about Reagan like he was some kind of god-king. He never had the kind of rabid violent followers like Trump does but that's the closest one I know of

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I was pretty young when Reagan was a thing, so I wasn't quite sure how intense his original supporters were (modulo his election results).

But, I guess it's also worth noting that he's been glorified by the GOP over and over again.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I was young then too, but it seemed to me that while Reagan was popular among Republicans during his Presidency, he didn't get an actual personality cult til after he left office. His popularity came from evoking nostalgia, so afterwards, he himself became an object of nostalgia. He died in 2004 and his funeral was turned into a tremendous media event glorifying him. It was sometimes called the "Reagasm".

It seemed to me that Barack Obama had a personality cult of his own, at least during his campaign and early time in office. I think that his followers got disillusioned after that, but he retained some popularity and got re-elected despite intense opposition from the other side.