I Want to Believe

Vancy was questioning the new polls on Fox News that show Kamala up by four points heading into the Convention.  He believes in all his heart that the polls are "wildly inaccurate" and that "we're going to win this race.  We just have to run through the finish line."  It's ironic since we were supposed to believe all those polls earlier that had Trump ahead before he embarked on a series of "press conferences" that have shown just how sadly out of touch he and the GOP are with reality.

I suppose this comes from running a faith-based campaign, believing in this massive turnout of Evangelicals that will overturn the god-forsaken masses that still support the Democratic Party.  We have been told repeatedly how "evil" Democrats are.  Trump even going so far to say that they execute newborn babies in Democratic states.  He's also pushing the "End Times" if he is not elected.  

This plays well to his faith-based audience, but beyond that you have to wonder what is going on inside that warped head of his.  Is he playing this election like one of his reality shows or is he a "true believer?"

Whatever the case he has cultivated a massive electoral base.  Donie O'Sullivan followed Mike Lindell and other "true believers" to see what makes this MAGA movement tick.  Donie was very sympathetic toward these cult leaders, which allowed him access to the My Pillow factory in Chaska, Minnesota, and numerous MAGA events along the way.  For the most part these cultists were sympathetic to Donie in return.  They loved the idea of being on CNN.  Mike was absolutely glowing when chatting to Steve Bannon on the phone, saying he had CNN in his office with at least 13 cameras focused on him.  "Is Donie there?" Steve asked.  "Yes," Mike replied.  "You better watch out for that little leprechaun," Steve jibed.

Donie has been following these cultists for several years and reporting back to CNN.  You can see he has a genuine affinity for some of these persons because they are not bad persons.  Mike started his pillow operation from scratch, mortgaging his house and hand sewing the first pillows himself.  It was a family operation that grew beyond their wildest expectations thanks largely to his clever promotions like the "world's largest pillow fight" staged at a St. Paul Saints baseball game. 

Mike said he was crack addict and going nowhere before he achieved sobriety through prayer.  He includes little slips of scripture with each of his pillows hoping to guide others in their dreams.  He also hires former drug addicts and felons who have accepted Jesus like he did, which is a commendable gesture.  However, he has come under fire for his bogus promotions that led to a high number of consumer complaints.  He lost his Better Business Bureau accreditation in 2017.  Even though his business suffered, he still had the President on his side, so he continued to sell pillows through MAGA sites and do pretty well for himself.

All that changed in 2020 when Trump lost the election.  Mike became a big promoter of the "Big Lie," costing him valuable access to social media.  But, he's not one to give up and in 2022 he helped underwrite a whole new alternative media cyberverse with his pillows.  He created his own program FrankTalk and is a frequent guest on other programs such as Steve Bannon's War Room.  Everywhere he goes he hawks his pillows and spreads conspiracy theories regarding the "stolen election."

Donie didn't challenge him much in this regard.  I guess he knows better than to question Mike's convictions.  Instead, he just let the My Pillow guy talk, which he did ceaselessly.  Mike has a gift for gab beyond that of Trump.  But, I couldn't help but wonder why invest all this time and money on Trump when surely there are more deserving god-fearing candidates to choose from?

In fact, you could ask that of the MAGA movement as a whole.  Don't they see that Trump is just a grifter leading them on a long arduous path to ruin?  Apparently, not.  Or, they have made such a deep commitment that to pull out now is to undermine their entire reason for being.  Basically, Mike and others in this movement have replaced one addiction with another.

That's pretty much how Evangelicalism works.  It pulls fallen persons up from the gutter and gives them a new or renewed faith in something better.  On the surface it seems like a good thing, but when you build this faith on a strong belief in the "second coming" and treat the world as being on the eve of destruction it creates a very volatile mentality.  You can readily see this in Mike Lindell.  This is the mark of the "True Believer."

However, you have the likes of Steve Bannon who see it as a golden opportunity to steer a large cross section of the country in a direction you want them to go and make a lot of money off them, just as televangelists have done.  Steve is using these age old techniques to bolster Trump's religious conservative following within the Republican Party and take it over.  You would think a guy like Mike would see through this but he is a self-proclaimed novice to politics and defers to those who know better. He is a frequent guest on Bannon's War Room and championed Steve when he was forced to serve a short prison term for defying a Congressional subpoena.  

For many in the MAGA movement Trump is their "Christian soldier," as hard as that is to believe.  He is often depicted as Jesus in the souvenirs you can buy at his rallies.  Like The Grateful Dead, a huge merchandising world has grown up around Trump and the MAGA movement.  They even offer tie-dye t-shirts.  Didn't the Bible warn against false prophets?  I suppose if you truly believe, then it isn't false, even if it looks glaringly so to everyone around you.

But, the MAGA cult has learned to block out the broader world and live almost entirely in the "bubble" they have created for themselves.  They had their one shining moment when Trump won the 2016 election and can't believe the world is no longer on their side.  Hence, the endless conspiracy theories that get promulgated by an ever-increasing number of podcasters in service to this cult.

Donie showed the Press Room at the Republican Convention last month and it was overflowing with these podcasters that serve as alternative news outlets for the MAGA faithful.  Donnie Jr. was busy making the rounds, sitting on the sofas and chairs and chatting with his favorite podcasters.  Trump's son wanted no part of CNN, so Donie could only show him from afar as if he was abiding to a restraining order.  But Mike was there and immediately grabbed Donie and gave him a tour of the operation.  He said it was too bad Steve wasn't around, but sat down with Bannon's daughter in the War Room to tell the MAGA faithful of the great injustice that was done in putting her father behind bars.

As far as I could tell Mike pretty much underwrites this MAGA altworld with his pillows.  He's hawking them on all the podcasts and I assume paying for that airtime when few others would give these yahoos the time of day.  They promote an endless litany of lies and conspiracy theories, the favorite among them being that illegal immigrants voted in massive numbers in 2020 through identity theft.  

Donie interviewed Kim Yeater, who said she had initially been denied the right to vote in the 2020 election because someone had already voted in her name.  Donie noted that she had been given a provisional ballot and allowed to vote but she insisted that the nefarious "secret sharer" was an illegal immigrant.  With no way to prove her personal conspiracy theory one way or the other, she could believe what she wanted to believe.

Since the incident, she has made it her crusade to point out to the MAGA world the number of illegal immigrants who cross the border daily on her podcast.  To get a better look at the border, Donie chose to travel with a group that calls itself Humane Borders which provides water stations and help to those who have crossed over.  For the most part he encountered women and children but there were young and middle-aged men that Trump has repeatedly called drug dealers, criminals and rapists.  You can add identity thieves to the list of crimes as so many among his faithful believe these working age men are illegally voting for Democrats in American elections.  

Donie noted that you can create virtually any scenario you want as MAGA podcasters flock to the border to give their viewers an inside look.  They hold prayer vigils and god knows what else. It gets bad when these cultists start to harass the border crossers.  There's not much Christian charity on display, as these cultists pull down water stations and try to make life as miserable as possible for these "undesirables."  They point to the blue flags marking the water stations as if they are signs of the devil.  It has become a never ending battle with animosity expressed in return.  Not all the illegal immigrants and migrant workers take this abuse lying down, even if most of them are too weak to put up much of a fight after days in the desert.

For his part, Mike doesn't focus much on the illegal immigrants.  He's obsessed with electronic polling machines which he is convinced are hacked to produce the outcomes Democrats want.  It doesn't matter that Republicans win races on the same ballot with Trump, somehow these hackers are so adept at their craft that they can single out the ballots to give Biden all these added votes.  Dominion, the largest manufacturer of these polling machines, was none too happy about these bold assertions and sued Mike, adding to his financial woes.  The case has drug on so long that Mike can no longer afford to pay his lawyers, but he keeps going, determined to clear his name.

It is hard to say just how widespread this MAGA altworld is because they have a hard time spreading their misinformation through the major social media sites.  Their podcasts are constantly being pulled down, but they pop right back up like Bedouin tents on the desert or at your nearest MAGA rally.  They have combined the fervent zeal of Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority with the Tea Party to create a MAGA world that is at least 30 million voters strong.  Yet, they believe themselves to be the majority of Americans even if polls indicate otherwise.

Maybe it is as Vancy said in his plea to Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream, "Consistently, what you've seen in 2016 and 2020 is that the media uses fake polls to drive down Republican turnout and create dissension and conflict with Republican voters."  In other words, they are much bigger than we know.

To some degree the 2020 election bore that out.  No one expected such a large turnout or that Trump would get 74 million votes!  So, there are MAGA sympathizers he keep their feelings hidden until election day.  Yet, it was still 7 million votes short of Biden, who was able to reclaim the Midwestern "Blue Wall" and take Georgia, Nevada and Arizona to boot, thereby defeating Trump by the exact same electoral vote margin that he beat Hillary in 2016, despite having 3 million fewer votes nationwide.  

So, the polls aren't necessarily incorrect but rather a reflection of the nation as a whole, which is why we find Kamala Harris up four points heading into the Democratic Convention this week.  About the same lead Hillary had at the same juncture in 2016.  It was a strange race that opened up, closed and opened up again, according to Nate Silver's aggregate polling, depending on all the revelations that came out concerning Donald's lack of character and Hillary's hidden emails.  Pretty much everyone expected Hillary to win, including Nate Silver, only to see her lose the "Blue Wall" by the narrowest of margins. So, we shouldn't be too optimistic as Trump voters tend to wait till the last day to turn out en masse.  

At the same time, we shouldn't give the MAGA cult more credit than it deserves.  It is doing a gross disservice to this country by continuing to promote a man of such a deeply flawed character and inability to lead a nation simply because they don't know where else to turn. They thought the bullet that grazed their fearless leader's ear would turn the tide in this election and bring the whole country around him for a resounding victory in November.  But, it hardly made a dent in the polls because most people have little sympathy for Donald Trump and his vengeful brand of politics.  He didn't change as a result of that near-death experience.  He remained the same old Donald.

This is what is most odd to me.  Evangelicals hinge their belief on being born again.  They have to admit their sins and give their lives over to the savior and let him guide the way.  Trump has never once admitted his sins or asked for forgiveness.  He spends his Sundays playing golf, not going to church.  If he mentions God's name it is probably in vain after missing a crucial putt.  There is literally nothing to indicate he believes in Christ, yet there he is on countless t-shirts being blessed by Christ and even portrayed as Christ himself.

You would think Vancy and his fellow Christian Republicans would be more concerned with this than they are the polls because most people see right through this charlatan.