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America the Megachurch
Kamala Harris once very appropriately warned Americans, “If you don’t believe me when I tell you Donald Trump is a threat to our country, then just watch one of his rallies.” We have no way of knowing whether or not people heeded her advice, but we know that Trump swept all the states he needed to and won pretty comfortably.
Perhaps, however, people did watch a Trump rally and liked the non-stop fairytales and lies they heard. If you have ever watched a megachurch sermon, then you can see where Trump got a lot of his flair for bullshit. There is a similar cadence in how he builds up his attacks against everyone who is not like him or the people in the audience. The way he leans into the podium as if pulling closer to tell “you,” random audience member, a secret message that is just between “the two of us.” His voice pitches up, and then races down the other side of the wave as if he were on a turbulent sea. His promises — his lies, threats, and bluster — are designed to safely guide the troubled ship back to the port.
“And I will make them pay for having sent us out into that troubled sea without me, your life savior.”
Seven million Americans attend megachurches every Sunday. They are most popular in Texas, Georgia, California, and Florida but…
