Trump's cult of personality threatens to hasten the demise of the GOP

Political personality cults are one of the defining features of autocratic and authoritarian systems of government and society.

Political scientists Benjamin E. Goldsmith and Lars J. Moen say today ’s Republican Party and conservative movement are a personality cult with Donald Trump as the cult leader.

Loyal Trump supporters put their faith in a strong leader, they say.

Julian Zelizer : A political personality cult can be both a powerful advantage as well as a weakness in terms of taking political power.

Zelizer says in 2016 , Donald Trump was able to defeat Hillary Clinton and the Democrats but his fortunes quickly changed.

He says in a reversal of 2016 , it appears that it is increasingly Donald Trump and the Republicans who will have snatched defeat from the mouth of victory.

Trump is not taking this change of political events and momentum well, Zelizer writes.

Salon ’s executive editor Andrew O’Hehir is attending the Democratic National Convention in Chicago .

He says the Democratic Party is not a personality cult, but it tends toward the other extreme, being undisciplined in terms of messaging and organizing.

In contrast, the Republicans are part of a right-wing movement that operates like a religion where victory is all that matters, and at any cost.