DEATH CULT?

Donald Trump's hold on the Republican party has been so complete that it is reasonable to say that the party has become a cult built around him.  And that all elected members of the party (save Mitt Romney) have to never publicly criticize him in any way lest they feel the wrath of his supporters.  From Ted Cruz endorsing him even after  he said that Cruz's father may have been involved in the Kennedy assassination(!),  to Lindsay Graham veering from calling Trump a "religious bigot" during the campaign to becoming one of the president's strongest defenders, there appears that there is literally nothing that Trump can do that his party will criticize him for. 
And how strong is the Trump cult?  Consider the rally that Trump held last Saturday in Tulsa Oklahoma.  In the age of the coronavirus, holding a rally with thousands of people in an enclosed area would seem to be a recipe for disaster.  And yet it was held.  And it should be said that this rally held no great relevance: he unveiled no new policy ideas or made any attempt to address the nation as a whole.  His only mention of the virus was when he blamed it, yet again, on China, calling it "Kung Flu" at one point.  So the only function of this rally was the same as every other rally he has had in the past three years; as an opportunity for Trump's massive ego to swell even larger in front of  an adoring crowd as he fires up his base.
Now it is true that precautions were taken in the lead up to the rally, with temperatures taken, and hand sanitizer and masks made available.  But the fact of the matter is that it was still an unnecessary gathering of thousands of people, in a state that has actually seen a recent increase in the number of infected people.  And most of those thousands did not wear masks or socially distance themselves, as the picture above clearly shows. 
And the attendees knew full well of the danger.  Before attending they had to sign a release form saying that they would not hold the Trump administration responsible for getting the virus at the rally.  In other words, our  country's president held a rally that risked the lives of his own followers (not to mention other people they could come in contact with)  for no reason other than he wanted another chance to bask in the glow of their adulation.  Normally, this would be big and frightening news,  but Trump has so denigrated the office of the presidency in this country that it's just another day in Trump Land USA.
It really does appear that Trump's followers will follow him right off a cliff; just as he has dismissed and downplayed the still serious danger of the coronavirus even as the number of infected Americans continues to climb. so have most of his followers decided to defiantly not wear masks or observe even the slightest safety measures.  It gets even worse when you consider that Trump's loyal base are mostly older people, putting them squarely in the category of people mostly at risk from dying from the virus.  And he just doesn't care. 
The  good news is that while Trump may have a stranglehold on his base, the rest of the country is getting tired of his lies, boasts and conspiracy theories, and his recent approval ratings have fallen as the election in November approaches.  While running simply as the "not Trump" candidate may seem a simple strategy for Joe Biden, it may be just enough to get him into the White House.  It's enough for me, anyway.