To the editor: Virginia Heffernan is right that Trumpism is a cult.

I remember when Fox News debuted in the 1990s. I overheard a co-worker tell another woman that liberals suffer from mental illness. Then they both laughed. I pointed out that I am a liberal. Silence.

Soon after, the first in a series of liberal-bashing Ann Coulter books appeared in the bookstores. This cult relies on little substance and a lot of outrage.

To this day those former co-workers of mine believe liberals are mentally ill. They also believe that President Obama was born in Kenya, Hillary Clinton belongs in jail, and President Trump is honest.


They have sat down every night for decades and watched Fox News, the most successful propaganda machine in modern history. From this well springs this cult that is winning elections aided by gerrymandering and voter suppression.

Should we worry? Yes, we should.

Bethia Sheean-Wallace, Fullerton

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To the editor: Are Trump followers members of a cult? Was Hitler’s reign a cult to Germans?

This is not as complex an issue as Heffernan says.

The simple formula is this: Tell the dissatisfied masses what they want to hear and give them an enemy to blame. Throughout history this is how tyrants have gotten power.

Richard Kopelle, Los Angeles