{"id":137,"date":"2026-06-01T09:09:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T09:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=137"},"modified":"2026-06-01T09:09:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T09:09:36","slug":"the-gop-is-not-a-political-party-its-a-cult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=137","title":{"rendered":"The GOP Is Not a Political Party\u2014It\u2019s a Cult"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<p>Donald Trump\u2019s hold on the Republican Party is absolute. In two runoff primaries in Texas this week, Trump-backed Attorney General Ken Paxton beat incumbent Republican Senator John Cornyn to become the Republican candidate for Senate. Cornyn has been a dutiful MAGA servant in the Senate, but Paxton, whose tenure as AG has been marred by corruption scandals and rank extremism, is an election denier, so he got Trump\u2019s endorsement and eventually won.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=135\">January 8, 1867: Emily Balch, Nation Staffer and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Is Born<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In the other Republican runoff, election denier Mayes Middleton beat Republican Representative Chip Roy in the race to replace Paxton as AG. Trump didn\u2019t endorse in this race, but he once again seemed to favor the election denier over the dutiful MAGA servant. Clearly, the best way into Trump\u2019s Republican Party remains falsely claiming Trump won the election he obviously lost.<\/p>\n<p>And once you\u2019re in, you\u2019re all but guaranteed victory. Across the primary spectrum, Trump-backed candidates are wiping the floor with Republicans Trump dislikes. GOP Representative Thomas Massie lost his primary last week, and all Massie did was call for the release of the Epstein files. (OK, he also opposed the Iran War.) Massie promptly hightailed it to Costa Rica, where he was spied this week vacationing with Marjorie Taylor Greene, another MAGA Republican who didn\u2019t even bother to run in a primary after she also pissed off Trump by calling for the release of the Epstein files.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve never seen a president with this kind of control over his party, certainly not one with a 34 percent approval rating. Trump is a stunningly unpopular, lame-duck president (or should be, if the Constitution is to be believed), and yet Republicans who support every one of his awful and unpopular policies are getting thrown out of office for not showing enough loyalty to the Dear Leader.<\/p>\n<p>What really gets me is that the fealty demanded by Trump isn\u2019t even being backed up by any overt acts of violence. Crossing Joseph Stalin or Maximilien Robespierre or Augustus Caesar would get you jailed and, likely, killed. Trump hasn\u2019t needed to enforce party discipline using any of those methods. He threatens people with\u2026 mean tweets? And they all crumble before him. And the ones who don\u2019t \u201cself deport\u201d to Costa Rica.<\/p>\n<p>The GOP is not a political party\u2014it\u2019s a cult. I don\u2019t know what to do about that, or how to fight it\u2014and I feel like anybody who tells you they do is lying.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Bad and the Ugly<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Speaking of Ken Paxton, the Texas AG is now coming after the popular online platform Discord, accusing it of being a \u201chunting ground\u201d for child predators. For the uninitiated, Discord is a social-media app used primarily by gamers that is particularly useful for voice chatting during gaming sessions. It\u2019s not a thing I let my teenager use (yet), but it\u2019s also not the place where I am most concerned about child predators. That place would be Roblox, which I\u2019ve tried to warn parents about multiple times in this space. But what\u2019s really interesting about Paxton\u2019s move is that Discord is one of those safe spaces for the troglodytes of the white-wing manosphere. (It\u2019s safe for non-trolls too, as long as you join more thoughtful servers.) These are the kinds of guys who vote for Republicans because they hate \u201cwoke\u201d Democrats, yet they never seem to care that it\u2019s Republicans who consistently push the regulations that try to bring these gaming spaces under government control. They\u2019re so obsessed with hating women and LGBTQ+ people that they don\u2019t even recognize which political party supports free expression.<\/li>\n<li>South Carolina Republicans rejected a redistricting plan that would have erased the majority-Black district currently represented by Jim Clyburn. People have been calling this a rare post-<em>Callais<\/em> \u201cvictory\u201d for Black folks, and it is, but it\u2019s also very hard to draw a map in South Carolina that weakens Clyburn but still protects his congressional neighbor, Republican Representative Nancy Mace.<\/li>\n<li>Trump apparently wants to make federal workers sign nondisclosure agreements as a way to prevent leaks. I\u2019d say the idea is flatly unconstitutional, but the Supreme Court won\u2019t agree with me. It made staffers sign NDAs after the <em>Dobbs<\/em> leak.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The lawyer representing a tourist from Washington State who was captured on video throwing a large rock at an endangered sea lion in Hawaii says his client was trying to protect sea turtles. I\u2019ve seen the video. I don\u2019t see any sea turtles. I do see a giant asshole who I hope gets prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. And then I hope they reform the law to make even more draconian punishments available.<\/li>\n<li>UC Berkeley\u2019s law school has adopted what is probably the most restrictive AI ban we\u2019ve seen in higher education. Students are prohibited from using AI even to check their grammar. While I am no fan of using AI in law, my gut tells me that Berkeley has gone too far.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Inspired Takes<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Grace Ginsburg shared an intensely personal essay in <em>The Nation<\/em> about her decision to take GLP-1s. I don\u2019t want to summarize her piece, as it\u2019s a complicated struggle between a feminist rejection of body shaming and her own desire to like how she looks. Instead, I\u2019ll share a little bit of my journey, as I\u2019ve been on GLP-1s for over a year now, and between that and a lot more exercise, I\u2019ve lost about 50 lbs.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike a lot of people who are \u201cmorbidly obese,\u201d which is, somehow, the literal medical term for my weight class, I\u2019ve never been particularly morbid about it. I\u2019m fat (a word I much prefer over \u201cmorbidly obese\u201d), which I view as <em>unfortunate<\/em>, but I have the body-confidence of a man half my size (and the general unwavering self-confidence of a mediocre white man). I\u2019ve made my weight part of my \u201cpersonality.\u201d More important, I\u2019ve <em>enjoyed<\/em> the lifestyle of a fat person: eating what I want, when I want, not obsessing about the mirror or the scales. Hell, I didn\u2019t even <em>own a scale<\/em> until I started down this path. I look at people who spend hours at the gym every day and nibble salads for lunch with <em>pity<\/em> more than envy.<\/p>\n<p>But as I got older, my weight really started to negatively impact my health. Not in the \u201coh noes, heart attack and stroke\u201d sense, but in a day-to-day \u201cmy knees can no longer support my massive frame\u201d way. It was affecting my quality of life and my decision-making: I, like, wouldn\u2019t go up the stairs to check on my kids because I didn\u2019t want to walk up the stairs. Once your <em>lifestyle<\/em> starts preventing you from doing what you want to do <em>in life<\/em>, it\u2019s time to at least consider change.<\/p>\n<p>So I started on the wonder drugs and hired a personal trainer out of concerns for my short-term health and quality of life, not because of societal pressure (admittedly, so much harder on women than men) to look different. Two years ago, I needed a cane if I was going to have to walk around for more than a few minutes. Last summer, I walked over 100,000 steps at Disney World without any form of assistance beyond comfortable shoes. My plan is working, more or less.<\/p>\n<p>But I\u2019d be lying if I didn\u2019t say that the benefits have been exclusive to my personal health and well-being. The feedback loop based on how I <em>look<\/em> has been\u2026 shocking and intense. Some people, both strangers and even friends, <em>treat me better<\/em> (even though I\u2019m still objectively fat) just because I\u2019m not as overweight. People are nicer to me. People smile at me more often. People say I seem \u201chappier,\u201d even though I am objectively despondent about trying to eke out a living under white-wing fascism. I feel almost as if I\u2019m in the Eddie Murphy sketch where he pretends to be a white man. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s just in my head, as, again, my (high) opinion of myself has not changed.<\/p>\n<p>And I\u2019m a guy! Male privilege means I can look like an ogre and still win a popularity contest and become the president of the United States. I can only imagine what this feedback loop is like for women.<\/p>\n<p>I was ambivalent about taking GLP-1s before I started. But I cannot deny that the social life of a slightly less fat person is better than before. I always suspected that to be true but, man, am I dismayed by how true it is.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Worst Argument of the Week<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, the Supreme Court released its decision in , a case about the First Steps Act, which sought to address mass incarceration. The case involved two men who had been sentenced to 32-year and 57-year mandatory minimum sentences prior to the passage of the act. If they had been sentenced today, they would have likely received 14-year and 32-year sentences. They applied for compassionate release because of the disparity between their sentences and the current standard.<\/p>\n<p>You don\u2019t need me to tell you that the six Republicans on the Supreme Court are \u201ccompassionate\u201d only to white folks who use God as an excuse for their bigotry. The prisoners were denied compassionate release, 6\u20133, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett writing the majority opinion for the Republican klavern.<\/p>\n<p>Barrett got stuck on the fact that the First Step Act was not made retroactive. Congress could have (and, I strenuously argue, should have), but it did not. Indeed, the fact that Congress could have made the act retroactive, and purposefully did not, is Barrett\u2019s strongest point.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=133\">Why Does This Nation of Immigrants Always Imprison \u2018The Other\u2019?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>But the First Step Act wasn\u2019t <em>really<\/em> the issue in this case. Instead, the core legal issue was an opinion from the US Sentencing Commission, which found that courts could look at disparities between the First Step Act and sentences issued prior to its passage when considering applications for compassionate release.<\/p>\n<p>Barrett and the Republicans on the Supreme Court rejected this guidance and instead prohibited courts from considering such disparities when reviewing compassionate-release applications. Put another way, the Commission said judges could <em>think<\/em> about the gross hypocrisy of one sentence versus another, and Barrett effectively said, \u201cNo, judges are not allowed to think about reality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Rutherford v. US<\/em> is thus another case where practical realities don\u2019t matter to Republican justices committed to their ideological obsessions. It\u2019s also another power grab by the Supreme Court over the administrative state. An agency merely said that one issue could factor into a judge\u2019s opinion, but Barrett and the Supreme Court superseded that guidance (which they\u2019re not supposed to do) and ordered judges to stick their heads in the sand.<\/p>\n<p>One of the Federalist Society\u2019s greatest victories has been convincing Republican judges that ideology should trump reality at all times. They\u2019ve created an entire army of jurists who view facts as unimportant distractions\u2014to say nothing of judges like Neil Gorsuch who just make up whatever facts they need to support the outcomes they prefer.<\/p>\n<p>If the Democrats ever reform the judiciary, it will be important for them to appoint judges who believe in such controversial ideas as \u201cBlack people and women-people are people-people and should get people rights.\u201d But we also desperately need a new cadre of judges who think about how their decisions play out among real people and not in law review articles.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What I Wrote<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jim Crow suffered a temporary setback in Alabama this week when a panel of district court judges rejected an unconstitutionally racist map put forward by the Alabama legislature. Unfortunately, I\u2019m not sure the ruling will last. That\u2019s because the Republicans on the Supreme Court suddenly become <em>very<\/em> well acquainted with the real world when it comes to helping Republicans win elections.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In News Unrelated to the Current Chaos<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In 2021, Krafton, a South Korean games publisher, bought the independent games developer Unknown Worlds for $500 million. Unknown Worlds was known for making <em>Subnautica<\/em>, a popular underwater survival game in which you basically crash-land on a water world and have to figure out how to survive and rebuild your ship while exploring the spooky ocean depths.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a good game, though hardly worth $500 million. But the purchase was made in 2021, and the thing about 2021 is that the entire video game industry was just coming off a Covid boom. People were locked inside, playing more games than ever before, and games were making more money than ever before. Even though the industry was obviously in a bubble, companies went a little nuts and spent like the inflated pandemic numbers would last forever.<\/p>\n<p>They did not.<\/p>\n<p>In any event, when buying Unknown Worlds, Krafton included a little carrot for the founders of the company and their core staff: It promised them a $250 million bonus if Unknown Worlds hit certain revenue targets within five years. Unknown Worlds got to work on <em>Subnautica 2<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Fast-forward to 2025, by which point it\u2019s clear that Krafton made a terrible deal. Again, <em>Subnautica<\/em> was a good game, but it wasn\u2019t going to be worth the $500 million purchase price. That said, <em>Subanutica 2<\/em> was probably going to hit the revenue targets needed to trigger most or all of the $250 million bonus.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s when Krafton CEO Changhan Kim went to ChatGPT and asked how he could get out of his deal. No, I\u2019m not making that up. When Krafton\u2019s own lawyers told him that there was no way out of the contract, my man <em>asked AI<\/em> how to breach it.<\/p>\n<p>ChatGPT gave him an answer. Remember, AI is like that desperate kid in high school who just wants to be liked. ChatGPT told him to fire the founders and delay the release of <em>Subnautica 2<\/em> to avoid having to pay the bonus. Which Kim then did.<\/p>\n<p>ChatGPT\u2019s legal advice, however, was dead wrong. The makers of <em>Subnautica 2<\/em> sued, and, after a trial during which all this ChatGPT stuff had to be disclosed, a judge ordered the founders reinstated and the game released. The judge also extended the timeline for the revenue targets through June 2026 (to account for Kim\u2019s shenanigans) and ordered Krafton to pay a bonus amounting to $3.12 for every $1.00 in revenue, up to the $250 million cap.<\/p>\n<p><em>Subnautica 2<\/em> was released on May 14 for $30 on Steam. The game sold over 4 million copies <em>in under a week<\/em>. That far outpaces more expensive games you may have heard of, like the recently released <em>Resident Evil 9<\/em>. <em>Subnautica 2<\/em> will almost certainly hit all revenue targets and force Krafton to pay out the full $250 million bonus, which the founders have indicated will be shared with the staff that helped make the game. And the judge still hasn\u2019t ruled on what <em>damages<\/em> the Unknown Worlds founders are entitled to.<\/p>\n<p>The lesson, as always: <em>Don\u2019t take legal advice from ChatGPT<\/em>. Well, don\u2019t take legal advice from ChatGPT <em>unless<\/em> you\u2019re a greedy CEO looking to screw over your partners. If you\u2019re that guy, by all means, feel free to fail in whichever way seems best to you.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p><em>If you enjoyed this installment of\u00a0<\/em>Elie v. U.S<em>.,\u00a0<\/em><em>click here<\/em><em>\u00a0to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=129\">Claire Denis\u2019s Haunting Neocolonial Drama<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Nation Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The GOP Is Not a Political Party\u2014It\u2019s a Cult - Atlas Living Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=137\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The GOP Is Not a Political Party\u2014It\u2019s a Cult - 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