Not that long ago, a cult leader named Jim Jones persuaded more than 900 of his followers to commit suicide by drinking Kool-Aid or Flavor-Aid laced with potassium cyanide.

Parents poisoned their children, as rehearsed, then they poisoned themselves.

When you hear talk of “drinking the Kool-Aid,” it means buying into the rants and demands of a cult leader preaching doomsday versions of reality. It never ends well.

The similarities between Reverend Jones and Donald Trump are striking.

Jones convinced his followers that law enforcement and intelligence officials were coming to get him — not because of his crimes, he insisted, but because he alone dared to speak the truth.

And Donald Trump?

He wants his supporters to believe that career officials in the DOJ, CIA and FBI —  sworn to defend our democracy, including Republicans he appointed himself  — committed treason by investigating the Russian attacks that helped put him in office.

The accusations of treason he hopes we’ll swallow could trigger the death penalty. Donald Trump is mixing up a particularly poisonous batch of the Kool-Aid.

Pat Shiplett

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Pat Shiplett

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