Is the Republican Party a "cult" ?

A cult is worship of a person or a principle. Does this fit the present Republican Party?

It's a denial of "by their acts shall ye know them." On top of giving him a pass on damned near anything he does, these people don't even bother to find out what he has actually done and where he actually stands. Polls indicate that the typical Bush voter believe him to hold positions that're 180 degrees out of phase from the positions he actually holds. They cult members just "fill in the blanks" and assume that he agrees with them - and never really check. To some degree, all zealous partisans engage in similar behavior - but I don't ever recall it being anywhere nearly as extreme as today's Reichpublicons.

This is why it's apt to observe that he could be filmed buggering Barney on the White House lawn and his sycophants would merely shrug and say "He must've had a good reason."

This is exactly the kind of "following" that Mussolini, Hitler, and other populist autocrats assembled. People given an 'attaboy' for turning off their brains and letting the drool flow.

The characterization as a cult could just as easily be applied to the Democratic Party, and doing so would be just as pointless.

run of the mill repuke doesn't really know what is going on and just continues to vote repuke because they always have. It's the NeoCons that you cannot reason with or talk to in a civilized manner. They are insane with allegiance with Bush. They are so full of hate they cannot think clearly. Very cult-like.

a mixture of free market capitalism and religious fundamentalism

as there are no monger elections. There's just BFEE& accomplices shitting on the country/world.

scary cult like.

it's also an organized crime syndicate. They use the same tactics of both cults and the Mafia to keep the rank and file in line; the GOP has a code of silence, which rewards liars and punishes people who tell the truth about them.

By definition the answer would be YES.

principle.

It's like a brotherhood, and also IMHO not comparable to the Democrat party. Or should we say Democratic peoples 'movement', because the Dem election campaign have done a great job in raising a open and friendly grassroot response to the Repub Neocons and Evangelistas.

If you look at the Repub webfront, it is dedicated to forward the message from above and suck up to the ones spreading it, with few--if any--questions asked. The food for no thought. All attention centers around the cult-leaders in a groupthinking, uncritical environment, occationally mixed with impact from real events. Or propelled by them, directed by the cult-leadership's spin doctors.

It became very clear when Reagan died; he was instantly established as a relic, and a picture/quote of the Gipper was a must if you were to 'mark' yourself within the RW web system. This was a reaction way beyond ordinary grief, especially when one take into account that Reagan's death was not unexpected.

Almost unknowingly (by the RW), the pictures of * and RR merged, and Reagan became the crutch for * to hang on during a difficult period, right after the Abu Ghraib pics broke.

But the real proof that it is a cult is the fact that a disturbingly small number of people have taken taken the politics out of the politics arena and into everyday life, and made the issues so rank that the scale-off by centrist-minded people soared--thus creating an even more groupthinking and uncritical env.
All while sowing more and more disturbance between ordinary people by--as an example--make a political issue out of Christmas.

This is borderline christianity at work, and the way they conduct themselves bear all the hallmarks of a cult.

Here's from thefreedictionary.com:

cult (klt)
n.
1.
a. A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader.
b. The followers of such a religion or sect.
2. A system or community of religious worship and ritual.
3. The formal means of expressing religious reverence; religious ceremony and ritual.
4. A usually nonscientific method or regimen claimed by its originator to have exclusive or exceptional power in curing a particular disease.
5.
a. Obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or veneration for a person, principle, or thing.
b. The object of such devotion.
6. An exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric, usually artistic or intellectual interest.

A religion, by the way, is nothing but a cult that made it. Sadly, by all measure, the Republicans have "made it".

Let's call in the re-programers