TINA (There Is No Alternative) and the Leader as "A Vehicle of Divine Providence"
And my video on covering corruption and violence with an aura of holiness
If you’ve been reading Lucid for a while, you know that we cover personality cults and how they create an image of the autocrat as indispensable, unique, and the only man who can save the nation. That’s where TINA (There Is No Alternative) comes in. The more such leaders are associated with brutality and corruption, the more their propaganda depicts them as in office by divine dispensation.
So here is my video on the subject, along with an essay first published in 2022 and then in revised form in 2024. It places what is going on in the United States in comparative perspective.
In January 2016, when I forecast that Donald Trump would develop a formidable personality cult along the lines of Vladimir Putin’s and Silvio Berlusconi’s if he won the GOP presidential nomination, people called me an idiot and a clown. But Trump has developed a leader cult that conforms to my description from nine years ago:
Here’s the trick to cults of personality: the leader has to embody the people but also stand above them. He must appear ordinary, to allow people to relate to him. And yet he must also be seen as extraordinary, so that people will grant him permission to be the arbiter of their individual and national destiny.
Autocrats are always looking over their shoulders for rivals, and the claim of uniqueness is also designed to insulate the leader from the idea that others could do or have done his job better. It also silences dreaded talk of successors.
The history of autocrats suggests that the more corrupt, violent, and hated they become, the more they use TINA messaging as they seek to stay in office indefinitely. In 2008, when Putin was still consolidating his power, he agreed to have someone else (Dmitry Medvedev) serve as president, while he served as prime minister, due to a constitutional ban on an individual serving three consecutive terms. By 2020, following the large 2019 public protests over corrupted Moscow elections, vacating the presidency was no longer an option. So Putin staged a referendum to amend the constitution to stay in power until 2036. His argument? That looking for successors would jeopardize the stability that only he could offer.
Americans got a taste of TINA messaging on Oct. 19, the day after an estimated 7 million people participated in No Kings protests. Trump responded by posting an AI-edited video that advocates for him staying in office in 2036, 2048, and…forever (“Trump4Eva”).
The “Man of Divine Providence” Propaganda Point
There is no better way to give TINA traction than to proclaim the leader as in office by the will of God and spin his every action as the fruit of divine intention. This idea has the most credibility if religious leaders circulate it. Dictator Benito Mussolini, an atheist, knew this: he made the Lateran Accords with the Catholic Church and was rewarded by Pope Pius XI proclaiming him to be a “man of Providence.”
Yet secular authorities and ideologues must also do their part, especially at moments when revelations or accusations about presidential conduct might lead people to think someone else could be a better choice. In 2019, during Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told the Christian Broadcasting Network, “I think God calls all of us to fill different roles at different times and I think that he wanted Donald Trump to become president, and that’s why he’s there.”
Christian nationalist allies of Trump have kept up this message for years, but it is telling that now, when reports of the profits Trump and his family are making from holding public office proliferate, and masked ICE agents beat up and kidnap people in the streets, Steven Bannon is taking to elite establishment media to spread this message.
In recent interviews with 60 Minutes and The Economist, Bannon made news (as intended) with his claim that there will be a Trump 2028 victory, regardless of the constitutional ban on third terms: “He’s going to get a third term ... so Trump is going to be president in 2028. And people just ought to get accommodated with that,” Bannon told The Economist.
And why will Trump have that third term? “We have to finish what we started. We need him for at least one more term,” Bannon said, describing Trump as a “vehicle of divine providence, he’s an instrument.” TINA at work, again.
Luckily, the ways of the divine are many. Just as I foresaw Trump’s rise in 2016, so do I stand by my February 2025 forecast: “out of the chaos and corruption, a revelation and reckoning will come.” We are already seeing more and more Americans realizing that Trump is likely driven not by faith but by the desire for power and profit. He intends not to save the country but subjugate and terrorize it with the help of his allies and ICE shock troops. In time, millions will see that there is another way forward. Then TINA may come to mean: Trump Is Not the Answer.
Thank you for your prediction Ruth! It gives me Hope! because I know you've been studying this for so long that your predictions have the best chance of actually happening!
Any of us who remember the Moonies, EST, Jonestown or religious cults know that even educated fall prey to charlatans and "love bombing". That's where we are with a felon with drooling follower minions...who will gladly arm for him.