Groupthink

Groupthink. This is the commonly found definition for this term:  Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative viewpoints, by actively suppressing dissenting viewpoints, and by isolating themselves from outside influences.

Groupthink requires individuals to avoid raising...alternative solutions, and there is loss of individual creativity, uniqueness and independent thinking. The dysfunctional group dynamics of the "ingroup" produces an "illusion of invulnerability" (an inflated certainty that the right decision has been made). Thus the "ingroup" significantly overrates its own abilities in decision-making, and significantly underrates the abilities of its opponents (the "outgroup"). Furthermore, groupthink can produce dehumanizing actions against the "outgroup".

If this doesn't describe what has happened with regards to the campaign of one Donald J. Trump, I don't know what does. They have replaced faith in God and common decency with a groupthink cult following of one specific man. To be clear, no one man can make America great. America was made great by God's providential hand because Americans, from the founding, recognized God's leadership in all that was good. 

Before you say to me, "Hey, you are Christian and you encourage groupthink", know this; God encourages each of us to develop our natural gifts, through His word, and to be our own person while following his Son. We are given free will and are not instructed to be all the same. Principles are not the same as a cult. Following the one true God and believing on His Son, Jesus, is the highest calling that any person undertakes. No man can save us from hell and no man can grant us admission to heaven. That debt has be settled. 

After what the Combed Over One has done in the past two weeks, this groupthink cult has crystallized itself. While a few in the Trump camp have jumped ship or questioned his motives, the vast majority of his indoctrinated followers haven't. When talking to these people in person, I seriously question each person's individual sanity. I have yet to find a Trump cultist who has been able to make a coherent argument on why they support the man. They spout platitudes like, "He'll build a wall and make Mexico pay for it", "He'll run the country like a business", "He's not a politician", "He's self funding", "He'll hire the best people", "He'll make America great again", etc. There are a few Trumpists that are members of the cult and they can be reached and pulled away. They are the people that haven't seen any better. Once they are shown, their eyes are opened. Those are few and far between.

The vast majority of the Trumpkins are not fully coherent. They have felt marginalized. I understand this part. The part where the disconnect happens is their solution for their feelings of marginalization. Feelings are never valid for making decisions. Prayerful discernment is needed for making decisions. These cultists have projected their own perceived or real inadequacies on a man and that is a recipe for complete and utter disaster. Trumpkins are not students of history. If they were, they'd see visions 2008 Barack Obama, several failed campaigns of William Jennings Bryan, and if they were to delve deeply, shades of Benito Mussolini would start to bubble to the surface. 

Nationalism, which has been what people like quasi-conservatives like Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity have called what Trump has been pedaling, is nothing more than an inward lurch of an all powerful big government. Nationalist movements seek to isolate in order to consolidate their power in the centers of government and then typically, once that is done, they lash out at those forces outside the borders of the nationalist state that their "leader" sees as the aggressors. Europe in the late 1930's comes to mind. Populist Nationalism is nothing more than fascism wrapped in the flag and is the result of weak minded groupthink. The people that back a nationalist leader feel inadequate and are unprepared to be left alone to fend for themselves by government. They are little different from the socialists and communists and only differ in that they see their country as their God. Socialists and communists reject all theories of superiority except that of the nameless, faceless state.  

American Exceptionalism, on the other hand, recognizes the fact that our country was founded by men, guided by divine providence and a belief in Almighty God. Our founding documents were inspired by God and written by godly men. We are no different in our flesh and blood from any other group of people on the earth. The reason we are different is a reliance on divine providence and the fact that rights come from God and not from man. If rights were derived from man, man can then take those rights away and those rights are nothing more than privileges. This is a wholly different ideology than nationalism. Alexis de Tocqueville was the first person to coin this term. The only reason government has to exist is to protect those rights which are inherent and from our Creator. 

The country is on a precipice right now. Do we lurch toward totalitarian fascism in one Donald Trump, socialism in Bernie Sanders, veiled socialism in Hillary Clinton, or American Exceptionalism and Constitutional government in Ted Cruz. I know where I stand. I stand with Ted Cruz. 

I don't support Ted Cruz because I think he is nice guy(he actually is) or because he's flashy(he isn't). I support him because he is a defender of the principles that made the United States of America the shining city on a hill. We are the last, best hope for mankind. As Rafael Cruz, Ted's dad, is fond of saying, if we lose freedom here, where do we have to go?

I invite you to read history. Don't let yourself be an uninformed voter. It may not be all your fault. Schools stink(putting it mildly) at informing people about history, mostly from a willful standpoint, but that's for another post. After all, if we don't know history, we are doomed to repeat it. God's favor and the ability to learn from our past mistakes are what separate us from animals. Let us not forget that.

Join me in. Volunteer for the Cruz Campaign by contacting me.

Donate to Ted Cruz 2016.

Find me on Twitter.