The other day I stopped in the middle of a conversation with a German neighbor of mine when I realized that he had no idea what I was talking about when I said, "they drank the Kool-Aid." At first I thought it was my awkward German but I soon realized that the disconnect was cultural and not linguistic. He had no idea about the origin of the phrase which has entered the American expression.
"He drank the Kool-Aid," of course, comes from the hundreds of people who drank poison because they had abandoned reason to Jim Jones. The episode is horrifying to contemplate from two perspectives. First the sheer carnage of so many dead from suicide and murder and, second, the sheer abnegation of the human spirit to submit oneself to such evil. There we saw raw psychic power.
But there is something very meaningful to understand from the horror of Jonestown and that is the power of the cult, or the power of submission of the ego to "the other." If we review such famous conversion experiences such as Saul on the road to Damascus, Billy Graham himself, and the entire Awakening Movements such as the one that swept America in colonial days which contributed greatly to the American Revolution, we must concede that these experiences can be powerful and lifelong.
I have long been pondering the power of the cult as an explanation for the draw in the hold which liberalism/communism has on the human spirit. I believe we are touching on a large part of the explanation. This power can either before positive or for evil. Either way it can be profound, we need skilled professional psychologists to extract some teenagers from some cults.
"Once a Marine, always a Marine" has real meaning. The transformation of the psyche is permanent and profound. John McCain claimed such an experience on the floor of his cell near death in the Hanoi Hilton in which he was contemplating death and only called back by a commitment to dedicate his life to his country. I will not substitute cynicism for McCain's account. In George Bush's case, there is no need to engage in skepticism much less cynicism because we have Bush leading an abstemious life since his walk on the beach with Billy Graham. The meeting was profound at least in that sense, he did not drink, and I think, therefore, that I am warranted to say that it was profound in other aspects as well. We have decades long proof.
All that being said, I am careful to distinguish what we want in a president from what we want in a preacher. That is why I am able now to support Newt Gingrich and that support is not entirely dependent on the validity of his repentance and conversion. Above all, I want a president with good moral character but I also want an effective politician, a patriot, and, of course, a conservative. I think Bush permitted his religion to interfere with his judgment as president to the detriment of the country. I do not excuse his missteps by reference to his religion, I simply offer that as the best explanation I can find for his behavior in office which makes a consistent explanation for every complaint which we conservatives have, many of which I listed in my reply.
By the way, I am grateful that you persevered and read through the whole of it.