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

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/asklemmy

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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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[–] Zonetrooper 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Agreed. And it wasn't just blind trust in his promises despite a lack of deeds, unlike Trump's wild promises. Like I said, Long actually managed to achieve many positive things for the working-class Louisianian. I also didn't mention it, but he was remarkably hostile to racism for a 1930s Louisiana politician; one of his issues with the Social Security system implemented by Roosevelt was that individual states might deny its benefits to African Americans.

I do wonder if he would have remained so benevolent indefinitely - there is the aforementioned secret control of an oil company profiting from State-owned lands, whose profits Long used for political purposes - but at the same time I can't deny he did a lot of objectively good things which helped the people who needed it the most, was rightly beloved for it, and didn't seem to be stepping away from it in his future plans.

If nothing else, he's a fascinating study on how the political positions associated with populism have shifted over time in the US.

[–] Smokey_the_beer 5 points 3 months ago

I think it also shows that some one who is a "good leader" can also do corrupt things for personal gain. We expect our politicians to be better people than a lot of us are (and we should) but are often surprised when they don't live up to what we think they should be.

I would look at some one like Baltimore City mayor Sheila Dixon. She was actually a pretty good mayor especially when comparing her to some that came after her. But she stole gift cards from the city that were ment for low income families.

It's probably a slippery slope. Like why shouldn't I benefit some from all this good I'm doing. In the case of Long it probably had something to do with him needing the money to help get reelected to continue to help people. Again I'm not saying any of this is ok, just that it is pretty complex to figure out why people do stuff and that it's pretty human to do both good things and be greedy and self serving.