Republicans After Bush

Sometimes people tell me that we've only got three more years of Bush and then things will be okay-ish again. They are wrong.

Orcinus says that the authoritarian cult we are witnessing is not a cult of Bush, per se, but, as Digby says, a cult of Republican power:

The discrete conservative movement is structured such that it needs a "charismatic" figure at its head; it's essentially a psychological imperative for this kind of belief system.

So if the leader it elevates happens not, in fact, to actually be charismatic, as Bush really is not, then the movement will tailor its reality to make him so. True Believers -- having been steadily propagandized with Fox News and RNC talking points about Bush's superior character -- now really do see Bush as a charismatic figure, which leaves most non-believers shaking their heads.

But he is in essence disposable, an empty suit filled by the psychological needs of the movement he leads. He's sort of like a Fraternity President on steroids: Bush's presidency is all about popularity, not policy. He's a figurehead, a blank slate upon which the movement's followers can project their own notions of what a good president is about. And when his term is up, the movement will create a new "charismatic" leader.

Leaders like this, as True Believers themselves, usually have a symbiotic relationship with the movement they lead. Most of the time, his initiatives and policies are perfectly in synch with the rest of the movement, and they feed off the cues they give one another. But the movement itself will quickly reel in any leader who presumes that the movement is about him.

Republicans like Rove and Norquist did not spend their lives building their movement only to shoot their wad on Dubya. We should not kid ourselves that our troubles will be over as soon as they can't elect him again. "The King is Dead. Long Live the King."