The Worship of Narcissists and Extremists

When you have Donald Trump, a narcissist, working for his own interest at the expense of his own party, it’s no surprise that you get someone like Matt Gaetz, working for his own interest, causing huge damage to his own party.

And now in the search for an adult in the room, it’s no surprise that, in a party that rewards narcissists For working in their own interest, even if it damages the party, that you have Steve Scalise dropping out of the race because too many of his colleagues would rather have the attention then do what’s best for their own party.

At the time of posting it’s been two weeks and there is still no Speaker of the House. The US Congress is paralyzed; One could make an argument that the US government is as well.

And that is extremism. When your views are so extreme that she will even hurt like-minded teammates, and you’re rewarded for it by your constituents, that means we have an extremism problem in the US.

Violent extremist groups have shown this pattern for decades. Groups like ISIS have body counts consisting mainly of their own countrymen, of Muslims. They may hate and demonize the liberal west, but they pointed guns towards moderates, fellow Muslims, who seem to be standing in the way. We see the same thing, here, a party intoxicated with extremism demonizes woke-ism and this nebulous liberal enemy, but they too turn their guns on their own.

The republican party is in chaos. They can’t govern: before losing their leader, excuse me, before beheading their own leader, their most notable accomplishment was an impeachment inquiry into Biden where there was no evidence provided. This is what happens when it is more important to be extreme, then to actually govern.

And it greatly reveals the characteristics of the GOP constituency. Although they have real life needs: healthcare, education, stagnant wages, and rising costs… they are much more interested in being extreme, and even turning on their own, to make it known that they’re angry… That seems far more important than the difficult and complex work of governing.

And although the party is demonstrably, inept, incompetent, and impotent, they will never do the proper thing and vote for the opposing party to punish these incompetent narcissists. The great irony here is that their greater foe is the specter of liberalism; If anything, they’ll vote for the even more extreme narcissist running to the right, deepening America’s extremism problem.

It is nothing short of diabolical to me that a Christian constituency is behind all of this: That people who love Jesus also pledge loyalty to narcissists, to extremists. The message of the cross is to sacrifice yourself for the good of others, yet Christians celebrate hurting even their fellow conservatives to make it known that they are angry, that the GOP is not extreme enough for them. 

My reading of the New Testament is that Jesus was only extreme in love, in taking care of the needy, and condemning the religious establishment. “Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” -Rev 2:5(NIV)