Republicans are the Real RINOs Now

Psychology confirms the “Party of Lincoln” is no more.

Republicans are the Real RINOs Now

Psychology confirms the “Party of Lincoln” is no more.

I am not sure exactly when it happened but sometime early on in this dark trump political era, I heard him call a Republican a RINO, and had a moment of clarity. Due to a deep understanding of the narcissist psychology that runs his operating system, I knew he was psychologically incapable of having any political ideology beyond his own compulsions and could never have any allegiance to the Republican Party or its voters, because the only allegiance he is ever capable of having, is to himself. In essence, what appeared to be trump throwing a standard political insult was really him confessing via subconscious projection that he was the real Republican In Name Only.

Although its first known use was in the early 1900s, the first time I heard RINO was in the early 1990s when Southern Republicans started calling others who did not agree with their far-right ideology, “RINOs.” It started off slowly, and then began popping up more often on talk shows and the news every time a “conservative” who spouted some quasi-Cristofascist ideology was challenged about their extremism in comparison to a reality-based Republican who understood they needed to govern for all the people.

The hardliner would say something dismissive with a nasty tone like, “He is not a real Republican. He is a RINO and a squish, so I do not concern myself with what he says, but I think his voters should know he is a RINO and should be challenged by a ‘real’ conservative.”

Over time, a Republican being called RINO by another became a massively effective R on R vicious attack that implied weakness, lack of conviction and not being a “true conservative.” As RINO was further weaponized, it has been effectively used as a main way to drive every non-extremist Republican out of public office, because of course a Republican being labeled a RINO is especially powerful in extremely gerrymandered districts, triggers the far-right crazies, and thus often gets them beat or not wanting to compete in Republican primary elections.

In many ways, it is the equivalent of a macho man in a macho political party calling other men, “effeminate.” Indeed it is a very psychologically toxic and degrading epithet, insult and weapon the far right has consistently deployed to maximum effect over every reasonable and patriotic Republican or conservative who dared challenge their self-serving, elitist, corporatist, racist, bigoted, misogynist or any other authoritarian, pre-democratic extreme, “lost cause” fever dream.

Many view this current GOP behavior as “cynical,” power politics, self-serving, transactional and Machiavellian, so they can extract everything they ever wanted or dreamed of from the American government and treasury, and that would all be true. What a coincidence the worldview for narcissistic, sociopathic and psychopathic politicians would also be completely cynical, power politics oriented, purely self-serving, transactional and Machiavellian as well. Yes, most GOP politicians and their operatives are currently exhibiting all the same behaviors as narcissists, and yet corporate media mostly stays silent about it.

That is why understanding trump is the poster child for Narcissistic Personality Disorder at a minimum is so telling. It fully explains his compulsively disordered, greedy, selfish and manipulative mind, and how his entire political playbook consists of love bombing, name-calling and every other tell and symptom of pathological narcissism and abuse. Of course, given his psychology, trump’s use of RINO had nothing to do with conservative ideology or loyalty to the Republican Party and everything to do with loyalty to trump. Thus when the GOP supported trump instead of decades of proclaimed values, morals and beliefs, they proved like trump, they were Republican In Name Only too.

Yes, narcissist spectrum psychology brings into full picture clarity how trump’s root motivations go far beyond the consistent MSM oversimplifications of his words and actions being merely “power politics” and “cynicism” on steroids. It also brings into clarity how today’s “Republican Party” has evolved into a similarly narcissistic creature who will stand by as every democracy burns, and now often pours more gasoline on the fires that are burning our freedoms, global security and economies, just like trump.

Practically, “power politics” and “cynicism” descriptions are true. However, the reality of trump’s whole purpose in life being to narcissistically protect himself and to try to selfishly extract everything he ever wanted or dreamed of from everyone and everything he can, without any personal concerns of moral consequence reveals a deeper, different and much more nuanced psychological story.

The American people and our government are just another target for pathologically disordered humans like trump and his party of flying monkeys to prey on, if allowed to do so. Again, what a coincidence that the worldview of a narcissist, sociopath and psychopath politician would also be to fantasize and shamelessly try for everything they want via cynical, self-serving, transactional and/or Machiavellian power politics as well.

In other words, for virtually anyone with a strong understanding of clinical narcissism, they should have easily seen trump for what he has always been from the beginning, which is someone who does not appear to miss checking off a single box of the symptoms that confirm NPD and ASPD. 

So when non-Republican narcissist trump started calling Republicans “RINOs,” it was extremely telling how GOP leadership did not call out his obviously disordered projection, and/or quickly folded after a few barrages of trump’s narcissistically abusive name-calling. Sadly, we are still waiting for most political experts to be able to distinguish the differences between hardball political attacks and disordered abuse.

Perhaps even more importantly, narcissist psychology also dictates that while many Republicans like to blame trump for the GOP’s troubles and claim their political party will be fine once they get out from under him, that is either continuing foolish ignorance, lies, delusions, or all of the above.

The Republican Party, predatory lobbying groups, the right-wing media and religion spent decades building an egotistical yellow brick road that a heartless, brainless, cowardly yet more charismatic narcissist like trump could easily follow by being himself, because the GOP had mostly given into their disordered self-serving pathology that lacked empathy, honesty, truth or reality, long before trump arrived. As you often hear me declare, trump was not the cause of the Republican Party’s problems. He is the inevitable result.

Unfortunately for the GOP establishment, trump’s far more grandiose, charismatic, love-carpet bombing, shameless promises and delusional narcissism gave the carnivorous lemmings of the GOP cult all the red meat they ever wanted. While the GOP gives them boring politics, trump gives them an entertaining, high drama, fever dream Reality TV and Wrestling show, thus the reason for the emotional and almost unbreakable narcissistic bond with the cult.

For many of trump’s fans, it is not about the issues. It is about the show. As was noted at the first GOP Presidential debate trump skipped, most GOP voters showed they were far more interested in Ramaswamy’s bombastic show that threw them red meat lies like trump, then in silly little things like conservative principles, policy, ideology or governing. Again, more proof the GOP is devoid of any real substance and thus, Republican In Name Only.  

Today’s Republican Party

Up until trump, only manipulative right-wing media and religion had promised every conservative all their most narcissistic fever dreams could come true in the form of a show. With trump however, the GOP political “dog has caught the car” because he promises everyone anything they ever wanted.

For many due to conditioning, that ego stroke and show he puts on for them seems to override any functioning logic or historic memory that most of what trump promises never gets delivered, or turns out terribly. It is well known in psychology that strong emotions like fear override logic and common sense, and since Americans as a culture tend to forget our own history, it should be no surprise trump’s favorite rally topic is some form of “American carnage.”

Of course if the rest of the red states gaslight their people and whitewash slavery the way DeSantis is doing it in Florida, that would explain a lot about why so many Americans do not know our own history. However, it is also standard operating procedure for the dishonest, cruel, corrupt and greedy to rewrite their own history with a positive spin. In yet another coincidence, it is compulsive behavior of all pathological narcissists to portray themselves as the hero in public and rivals as the villains, no matter how villainous and inhuman they have been, hence many GOP and trump attacks on everyone else are nothing more than narcissistically compulsive behaviors.

Many years ago, the telecom company named Cingular developed a reputation for poorly treating and ripping off its customers, of which I can personally attest to the tune of $540. So when they bought the remaining part of AT&T that owned the AT&T brand name in 2007, it was obvious the move was mostly done to rebrand their badly tarnished public reputation. Indeed they instantly changed their name and cleverly marketed the illusion for those who didn’t follow the break-up of the AT&T monopoly, that they were dealing with the old AT&T / “Ma Bell,” and not her badly misbehaving offspring Cingular, pretending to be her.

The Republican Party brand has also seemingly been purchased in a similarly nefarious way by a variety of “libertarian” and Christofascist right-wing billionaires who have tarnished their own brands but still compulsively want to run America as their kleptocratic, authoritarian oligarchy. 

All they want are America’s freedoms, assets and people directed by them to “serve America,” which in their version of reality coincidentally serves all of their own interests first, best, last and always, just as every other clinical narcissist of any net worth compulsively craves, due to their psychological disorder.

The difference now is the Republican Party has worked tirelessly for decades to legalize political bribery with more money in politics rule changes like Citizens United. Considering the recent revelations of Supreme Court Justices being lavished with gifts by far-right billionaires they made richer and more powerful with other self-serving court decisions, we have to ask how many more disordered minds now have billions of dollars and will compulsively work to end democracy, in a political system fueled by money?

Put this new political reality with a party that has surrendered all of the morals, principles and patriotism they ever had, to serve narcissist billionaires who have no interest in our freedoms or democracy beyond how it helps them maintain and gain more power and money for themselves, in a futile attempt to fill their own bottomless emptiness through greed and dominance.

Certainly if the behaviors of the Republican Party that is hired to do the bidding of these self-serving billionaires are nearly identical to narcissists, sociopaths and psychopaths, It only stands to reason that many are in reality, narcissists, sociopaths and psychopaths. Essentially, the GOP is now run by people who only care about themselves and their owners, as confirmed by their every action and consistent pathologies.

Republican politicians from the state, regional, local, and everywhere were shamelessly gerrymandering long before trump showed up, and yet now use him as their excuse and scapegoat to keep moving further away from fair and free elections, or semblance of democracy.

The Republican Party is not even a political party anymore. It is a party “in name only” that rides a malignantly narcissistic cult of personality to hold on to power. How else do you describe a party of politicians who will vote against things like the government funding for more rural internet services and then go back home to their districts and take full credit for more rural internet.

I do not know why we even call them the Republican Party because they show no signs of being Republican, republican or even a political party. They are a lobbying and legal firm for the most selfish, greedy and narcissistic billionaires in not just America, but the world. Saudi money, Russian money, Turkish money, Chinese money, anybody’s money, they will take it, and will shamelessly do just about anything for it, even if it hurts America. The only America they seem to acknowledge or care about is the sovereign country of themselves. They have no values, morals or principles, patriotism or ideas. They have a 100% focus 24/7/365. “How does this help or protect me?” That’s it!

The Republican Party is now a marriage of self-serving convenience and cold calculation as far as the GOP powers that be are concerned, They thought they were going to be able to swap out the less bombastic psychopathic DeSantis for the deteriorating narcissist loon trump, but thanks to DeSantis’ inability to mimic a human personality even in friendly controlled environments, that plan failed. Fascinating the Florida GOP or Fox News audiences never noticed DeSantis was severely lacking a human side.

Hopefully that means Ron is finally being recognized even by Republicans as a person who shows a multitude of dark and dangerous psychologically disordered tells, starting with a complete lack of empathy, and thus clearly unfit to look after the American people's interests as President. Certainly we dodged a bullet there because most predators with DeSantis’ disordered psychology are usually very good at superficial charm and charisma.

Psychopathy can be hereditary, extreme wealth creates an easy detachment from reality and childhood trauma as the leading cause of narcissism often gets repeated generation after generation, so it is likely many of these fascistic billionaires are just following the patterns of Cluster B Personality Disorders, aka narcissistically compulsive programming that starts with a lack of empathy and goes downhill from there, because there are no cures or treatments effective beyond the margins. Indeed that means that there are multiple narcissists, sociopaths and psychopaths in high GOP positions of power, where I have only spotted a few on the Dem side, but it is not even close to the GOP’s highly contagious airborne infection of narcissism.

Their power is not in question. It is how they have dishonestly and undemocratically acquired and misused the power they have. As the Republican Party holds the American government & economy hostage (AGAIN) by threatening to stop paying our credit card bills, in order to bring on the fascism they fantasize about, and to get their pathologically narcissistic billionaire oligarch owners more financial benefits at the American taxpayers expense, the Republicans, their voters and corporate media are focused on John Fetterman’s attire. Sounds familiar?

icymi, RW Media was outraged for weeks Obama wore a tan suit.

Let’s get real. There is no reconstitution of the Republican Party until the cult is no longer groomed, programmed and gaslit with lies, propaganda, half-truths and narcissism. It is one thing to tell voters what they want to hear but it is something completely different to be in a constant state of grooming and gaslighting marks.

This psychologically disordered behavior is the very real reason why it is so hard for America’s longtime allies to trust the U.S. now, because if the RINO fascist party is put in charge, our beastly Mr Hyde will come out again.

This is not the Republican Party that used to unite with Democrats in defense of America through World Wars and more. This is now a GOP whose best foreign friends and role models are many of the worst and most fascist authoritarian leaders in the world, like trump pals Putin, Orban, Erdogan and Kim. This is what trump wants to bring to America folks, and anyone who claims differently is lying, naive, propagandized or in full narcissistic denial.

Conclusions

It has been and will continue to be both terrifying and fascinating how the Republican Party reacts as reality continues to slip further and further away from them. By completely following trump down his totally fascist, narcissist, thieving and anti-patriotic rabbit hole, the Republican Party itself definitively became Republican In Name Only in 2016, and it has only gotten worse. At least in their fall from reality, RINOs have gifted us with a preview of how our free speech democracy can fall, and orient towards an Orwellian dictatorship quite quickly.

“The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.” - George Orwell - 1984

It is truly stunning how the Republican frontrunner for President incited his supporters to storm the capital in an attempt to steal a Presidential election he lost and democracy itself, and the Republicans are mostly fine with it, so they certainly would have been silent if trump’s attempt to end American democracy had succeeded.

A current CNN Poll said the GOP voters still broadly support trump, “with less than half seriously worried criminal charges will harm his 2024 chances.” Seriously, more than half of the “Party of Law and Order” are not worried his multiple indictments will hurt his “2024 chances,” and are giving no thought to the implications of the criminal charges themselves. Wow! Just wow, right? That reality is just “Looney Tunes” and shows how the GOP is RINO.

However, I do find some hope in the sense that Republicans are close to rock bottom, with everything new they say being closer to their stupidest take ever. The bright side being that while most now understand there is no bottom for how low trump and narcissist Republicans will go to serve themselves, they may at least be close to an intellectual bottom, because it will take serious effort to talk more dishonestly and stupider than they do now.

This is positive because escaping a cult usually requires seeing their leader for the total liar they are, so the hope is an intellectual bottom may help bring some to see trump and the RINO cult as the lying grifters they truly are. Regardless of whether you call them Republicans, fascists, authoritarians, narcissists or whatever, GOP politicians, their base and their decades-long groomed and gaslit narcissistic “belief system” are all RINOs now.

“It is hard to get mad at donald trump for saying stupid things, in the same way you don't get mad at a monkey when he throws poop at you at the zoo... What does get me angry is the ridiculous, disingenuous defending of the poop-throwing monkey.” - Jon Stewart

Sam Ray © 2023 Counter-Narcissist Intelligence