As America marks the 50th anniversary of the Tate-LaBianca murders, we look at the parallels between the Manson Family and the Cult of Trump
Fifty years ago today, Winifred Chapman showed up for her housekeeping duties at 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles to find the mutilated bodies of Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski and Abigail Folger, seemingly shattering forever the idyllic mystique of the American Dream as the world would come to know the horror of Charles Manson and his makeshift family of hippies and drifters.
Manson placed himself as a messianic figure to a group of burnouts who felt as if they had no place in society. As willing followers, they bought into Manson’s theory of “Helter Skelter” where a race war would soon engulf America in endless turmoil, with Manson and his family being the only ones left to come out on top.
Fifty years after those initial murders, President Donald Trump has become a similar sort of messianic figure for white Americans who believe that the country has cast out their beliefs and values in order to embrace things and people that don’t fit in with their preferred view of America.
Manson sought to build his power from the bottom up, an idea doomed to fail largely because society, as a whole, looked down on hippies despite them being every bit as white and potentially privileged. Trump, on the other hand, came to power by cultivating an image via populism. Trump was not a societal outcast, he was what society, particularly white society, aspired to.
Building his campaign off the phrase “Make America Great Again,” Trump cultivated followers of his own, and doubled down by using rhetoric of fear, much like Manson, to bulldoze his way to the White House, where his rhetoric would only mushroom, galvanizing his followers to embrace their vision of America: an America that gleefully splits up families of immigrants, makes targets of ethnic and racial groups, and espouses a form of nationalism that sees them returning to prominence with everyone else at their feet.
In short, Trump is in the process of accomplishing what Manson couldn’t: Helter Skelter.
Of course the differences between Trump and Manson are myriad, and chances are that neither would approve of the other, but its where the scant similarities lie that the dread creeps in.
By its very virtue, “Make America Great Again” is a lamplight for racism, the very racism that Manson sought to cultivate and foment, but also more tangible than Manson’s fever dreams. But what’s important to note is that Trump didn’t create more racism, or any racism at all, what he did was give racism a penthouse suite and welcomed it home.
Manson sought to build his power from the bottom up, an idea doomed to fail largely because society, as a whole, looked down on hippies despite them being every bit as white and potentially privileged. Trump, on the other hand, came to power by cultivating an image via populism. Trump was not a societal outcast, he was what society, particularly white society, aspired to.
Despite sitting on golden toilets in a golden gilded Manhattan penthouse, Trump fashioned himself into a man of the people, who lived through his id in a way that the average conservative always wanted to, and in that, he found a way to take control.
An article by University of Salford professors Linda and Rod Dubrow-Marshall details how Manson was able to control his followers, by ensuring that “followers not only saw him as an all-powerful, messiah-like figure, but that followers see themselves as members of a superior elite that has the answer to the world’s problems – even if that means killing the rest of the world along the way.”
Part of Trump’s message focuses on the idea of American exceptionalism as not a path for all to follow, but rather justification for America’s exclusivity. This is how a need for immigration reform turns into a “crisis at the border,” and how that so-called crisis threatens the very fabric of the American way of life.
Much like Manson, Trump incoherently belches out an apocalyptic worldview that warns his flock that if something isn’t done and done soon, all could be lost, and like the cult-leader or pimp, that’s where he takes their mind.
As the Dubrow-Marshalls state in their article, “Over time the Manson-type cult leader becomes a dominant part of the follower’s identity and their self-esteem. The whole reason for their existence and survival is completely tied up with the leader and the cult.”
This is where correlation and causation meet.
According to Mother Jones, instances of violence by far-right sympathizers have exploded in the two years since Trump’s election, and before some oppressed conservative raises their finger in dissent, the proof is very much in the pudding.
Conspiracy theories, one of the hallmarks of cult-like subversion, are not only growing in the wake of Trump’s rise, Trump himself embraces them, the byproduct of which is a new-found respectability bestowed upon right-wing crackpots who are enjoying the spoils of a portion of self-identified Deplorables hanging on their every word, because their dear leader waved his hand in passive support.
And so like Manson, who never actually killed anyone (although he did try), Trump, through his words, actions and general fear-mongering, is actively creating a stable of killers, all motivated by a desire to see America return to a time that was only ever really great for people who looked like them, even though the truth of that greatness comes into question for any white American who wasn’t wealthy.
Ultimately, as we remember the rampage of August 8-10, 1969, and compare it to the rise of ideologically-motivated mass shootings of today, the same thing rings true: the true danger isn’t in the cult leader–largely because their ministry is built on a fragile base of deception and lies–but on those ready and willing to follow.
In order for a brain to be washed, that brain has to be, to a point, willing. Everyone is looking for a panacea to their own pain, and more importantly a cure for their perceived source of pain.
Manson and Trump successfully converted followers to meet their ends. While Manson was far less successful with his plan, Trump, through his words and deeds, picked up that wicked baton, and in turn passed it to a nation of willing followers, people whose fear, hatred and suspicion will unfortunately outlive any Trump presidency, and the clear and present danger that stands before us is that Helter Skelter will be fulfilled, making true victims of us all.
Hashim R. Hathaway (Shimbo) is the host of the Never Daunted Radio Network, and proud father to NeverDaunted.Net. You can reach him on Twitter @NeverDauntedNet