The Cult of Ideology vs. The Cult of Personality

The most important clashes aren’t between right and left but within right and left

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Do you ever read an idea and feel enlightened and envious at the same time? You simultaneously think, “Aha! That’s insightful,” and “Dang! I’ve been sniffing around this concept and haven’t quite nailed it like he did.” In this instance, it’s a concept that helps explain both the deep dysfunction of our political system and the deep discomfort that so many people of good will—on both sides of our political spectrum—feel with our political culture. 

It’s summed up in this tweet by a sharp lawyer I follow who tweets under the name “A.G. Hamilton.” 

If you click on the tweet you can read his entire thread, but his point rests on two key and obvious trends. First, the Democratic Party has moved quite decisively to the left, and the median Democrat has moved far more to the left than the median Republican has moved to the right. This chart, recently made famous in a column by progressive writer Kevin Drum, illustrates the point nicely:

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    “ What we now call “Trumpism” is really Trump’s imprint on an impulse that pre-existed Trump and is likely to persist well past his presidency. If you pay little attention to talk radio, you’re likely missing the extent of devotion to the cult of aggression.”

    This is 💯 percent true. It’s at a stupid level. “MJT fights!” “What does that mean?” “I don’t know but she duz! She jes duz!” Too many people I grew up with were already all about this attitude well before Trump was spreading lies about Obama’s birth certificate.

    “ Alex Jones (don’t laugh, he has a huge following) has threatened to turn on Trump for pushing the COVID vaccine. Candace Owens (again, another person with a huge following) has also sharply disagreed with Trump on vaccines, suggesting Trump is too old to follow the latest “independent research.””

    This is very interesting. A sign the cult is breaking. I will be watching it closely.

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  2. Jumpstop

    So long as the "insane" wing of the left (the progressives) persists in its transformation of U.S. social and cultural norms, factions of the right will be aggressive, pugilistic, vitriolic. Trump did not appear out of nowhere, as DF rightly notes. The recent developments on the right are indeed troubling, but they are decades in the making and a direct result of the left's wide-ranging assault on the Constitution and American norms. The anti-vaxx movement isn't solely about medicine, science or health. It's also about a deep mistrust of politicians and gov't bureaucrats as well as their heavy-handed approach to almost everything (i.e., get the vaccinations or else!).

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    Jason Gibson

    Gaar. I read that garbage essay in first things finally. I proudly subscribe to David French-ism

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    Aggiewill@comcast.net

    the graphs look like something out of purdue pharma and are five years old as an independent, I don't think the sides move as much as the extremes get all the attention. Add to that a world where that attention is built from platforms making a lot of money and well.... lets just say that the fall of journalism and journalists is a much greater cause than political ideology shifting within party members. I don't know any democrats or liberal leaning people that thought defunding the police was a good idea. some on the edge said it and made every headline. listen to your podcasts and count how often you said it vs. the number of times politicians did. The people I know were more concerned with illegal behavior by the police. racist behavior. behavior that costs taxpayers millions of $ per year while harming citizens. as to the cult for trump, I can't answer as to what happened to the right. seems more like they haven't shifted either. They are just happy they can say it out loud

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  5. Jay Miller

    David, I think you are spot on. That's why Jesus didn't say "by their political or religious belief system you will know then." Instead He said, "By their fruits you will know them." That's why tyrannies may have different philosophies, but they wind up acting very much the same. Pride and self-righteousness will always produce the same fruit. The doctrines they quote are in many ways secondary. They become the "great cause" that provides the rationalization for despising their fellow man. This is the driving force behind much of the polarization we see today. "My way or the highway" is becoming more prominent in all sectors of society. We are forgetting how to love God or our neighbor. Instead we demand that others love us. And that "love" is defined by having to agree with all that somebody says.

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    Pboyd

    I'm an conservative outlier in my liberal church, which I love. I think there are others like me, but we are the quiet ones, doing the work of the church, as do many of those who constantly state their political beliefs, loudly and often. As long as everyone lives the way they talk, I'm good-I call them the "true believers". There are personality clashes of course, but for the most part we get along and I think it's because we're working for something bigger than ourselves.

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  7. Ron Barry

    When I originally joined as a The Dispatch member, David French was a major reason. Lately, I fear Mr. French (and I'm still a huge fan) spends way too much time defending himself from Twitter trolls or other sites' essays. Just write, man - your stuff can stand on its own. And I pray that this is taken as merely a prayerful suggestion, and not an unfair criticism. Tell us your thoughts again - not what others THINK about your thoughts. Thanks for listening.

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    Tori

    I just subscribed to the dispatch and had a hard time with just the beginning of this post, that most democrats especially in large urban areas have moved far to the left. Yes, I’m in the Portland OR metro area, but I don’t agree at all with what the City government is allowing to happen to Portland. I guess I identify as democrat because I would consider myself socially liberal, but fiscally conservative. I feel like that is the position a lot of “democrats”. Have democrats really moved that far to the left or is it only the most vocal democrats that have moved that far, but most of us are still closer to the center?

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  9. Linda Howelton

    Diane, you just proved Karin’s point.

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  10. Anne Touryan

    In some ways, nothing has changed. I have recently read The Journal of John Woolman, a Quaker spiritual leader from the1700s. He was very instrumental in leading the Quakers to adopt an anti-slavery position before our country even became a nation. By 1776 I believe no Quaker in good standing held any slaves. Woolman was extremely sensitive to the spiritual condition of his fellow men. This is what he observed in the mid-1700s in America, "It appears to me that, through the prevailing of the Spirit of this World, the Minds of many were brought to an inward Desolation; and instead of the Spirit of Meekness, Gentleness, and Heavenly Wisdom which are the necessary companions of the true sheep of Christ, a Spirit of Fierceness and the Love of Dominion, too generally prevailed. From small Beginnings in Errors, great Buildings, by degrees, are raised; and from one Age to another are more and more strengthened by the general Concurrence of the People." Was that an insightful prediction or what?

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