George W. Bush and the Personality Cult

An attempt to explain George W. Bush's inexplicable popularity using the theory of the personality cult

Democrats and other liberals and progressives watched in incredulous awe as George W. Bush won a second term as U.S. president. How could so many people vote against their own best interests? How can they believe that they voted for "moral values," when the basic core values that make this country great, like access to jobs, health care, education, and the American dream, are being slowly whittled away by the Bush administration? How can we explain Bush's inexplicable popularity? Perhaps the answer lies in the theory of the personality cult.

Personality cults sometimes form in power-hungry regimes, such as Stalinist Russia or Mao's China. Through extensive government-led propaganda campaigns, the leader is elevated to an almost divine level. He is venerated as a liberator and a savior in the war against good and evil. He wins the blind adulation of an effectively brainwashed public. And he is neither questioned nor held accountable.

Much of Bush's popular appeal comes from his well-rehearsed down-home Texas style. Most people don't seem to realize that Bush grew up in New England, a true Connecticut Ivy League Yankee, every bit as white-bread as John Kerry. It's easier to disarm the public when you can make them think that you're one of them.

Combine the good ol' boy demeanor with religion, and you've got yourself a ticket to red-state glory. Bush overcame a nasty drinking problem when he found religion. This became his new addiction, his new obsession, his new escape from reality.

In July of 2004, Bush told an Amish group in Pennsylvania that "God speaks through me." He believes that God wanted him to be president, and that God is working through him, even as tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi men, women, and children die in a war based on lies. It's God's war. We're the good guys. We're fighting the evildoers over there so that we won't have to fight them over here. This is truly an ingenious way to win the trusting hearts of Middle America, who have been programmed to fear the evil Muslim barbarians who want to kill us because they "hate our freedom." It's easier than thinking. So they follow him like sheep.