Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic Party\u2019s 2016 nominee for president, has been involved in the political arena in one way or another for most of her adult life. She first came to prominence as the First Lady of Arkansas when her husband, Bill Clinton, became governor in January 1979. Working at his side, Hillary championed issues on behalf of the people of Arkansas, most notably advocating for poor children and families. When Bill was elected president in 1992, Hillary assumed the duties of First Lady, while also taking some political initiative of her own, such as her efforts to create a national healthcare system, and \u2013 once again \u2013 advocating for underprivileged children. She has also been a U.S. Senator, representing the state of New York (2001-2009), and most recently, she served as Secretary of State in the Obama Administration (2009-2013). On April 12, 2015, she declared her candidacy for president, and on July 26, 2016, she was formally nominated as the Democratic Party\u2019s standard-bearer.<\/p>\n
As were numerous commentators of the period, Greenfield is critical of the relationships that these politicians had with Jones, but the author has special disdain for Jerry Brown\u2019s past support of Jones. The fact that that relationship ended more than forty years ago doesn\u2019t mean anything. According to Greenfield, Jerry Brown\u2019s endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president earlier this year is equal to his support of Jim Jones.<\/p>\n Greenfield then adds that \u201cJerry has decided to drink Hillary\u2019s Kool-Aid,\u201d suggesting that Brown\u2019s support of Hillary\u2019s policies will be mindless and robotic, thereby smearing two Democratic politicians with one loaded clich\u00e9.<\/p>\n In March 2016, a blogger going by the single name of Chedoh wrote on peoplescube.com <\/a> about the similarities that some people see between Hillary Clinton and Jim Jones. Quoting Forensic Psychologist Jason McKay, the author states that Secretary Clinton has been \u201cclearly mimicking the body language and speech structure\u201d that Jim Jones used when addressing African American audiences in order to curry favor with minority voters. McKay also states that, during a campaign rally, Hillary \u201cwas consciously manipulating the crowd of minority voters to get them to follow her unconditionally, without question,\u201d and that Hillary \u201cis borrowing her techniques directly from Jim Jones. There\u2019s no doubt about it.\u201d Chedoh himself (or herself) completes the analogy: \u201cJones\u2019 deception relied heavily on [the] politics of social justice and redistribution of wealth, which he used to \u2018hypnotize\u2019 and \u2018brainwash\u2019 his followers.\u201d How could anyone conclude otherwise, Chedoh asks: the body language and speech patterns, the racial make-up of the audience, the underlying principles, they\u2019re all the same for both Hillary Clinton and Jim Jones.<\/p>\n Kshikehe\u2019s final snipe at the Democratic candidate is a very simple, but powerful, three-word sentence: \u201cWelcome to Hillarytown.\u201d After all the comparisons to Peoples Temple, is there any question what Hillarytown is?<\/p>\n Rhett \u2013 again, there is no last name given \u2013 of the \u201cSayWhatNews?! Blog\u201d also refers to Clinton supporters as \u201cdrinking the Hillary Kool-Aid,\u201d then goes a step further, claiming that they are \u201cbeing led to their slaughter, politically.\u201d Rhett opines that Secretary Clinton\u2019s political record is riddled with political wrongdoing, and that those who vote for her in November will be forever \u201cinjured\u201d by her election. \u201cHillary Rodham Clinton was, is, and will always be a two-bit political hustler,\u201d Rhett continues, \u201cjust as Jim Jones was a psychopathic religious hustler.\u201d In case the reader doesn\u2019t get the message, the author goes on to call Hillary \u201ca political and veritable \u2018cult of personality\u2019\u2026 Hillary Clinton is the Jim Jones of our modern political era.\u201d<\/p>\n The Republican Candidate, Donald Trump<\/strong><\/p>\n Donald Trump, the \u201cBillionaire Businessman\u201d from New York, is the Republican Party standard-bearer in the 2016 election. Trump has always had a reputation for being brash, and has kept himself in the public\u2019s view through such vehicles as the reality television show, \u201cThe Apprentice,\u201d the Miss Universe beauty contest, flamboyant casinos and exclusive golf courses bearing his name, and \u2013 seemingly more respectable but perhaps even more controversial \u2013 Trump University and the Trump Foundation. Trump has no experience in the political realm, and has based his campaign upon his own descriptions of his success as a businessman. Along the way, Trump has made both friends and enemies with his blunt, and \u2013 at times \u2013 uncouth remarks on national issues and rival political candidates.<\/p>\n Like Hillary Clinton, Trump has also had online critics compare him to Jim Jones and the negative personal qualities that such a comparison invokes. Writing for targetliberty.com<\/a> in January of 2016, Robert Wenzel described a book-club meeting he had with Debbie Layton in San Francisco to discuss Layton\u2019s book, Seductive Poison<\/em>, about her experiences in Peoples Temple and with Jim Jones. \u201cI asked her if she saw any Jones-like characteristics in any of the Presidential candidates, specifically Donald Trump,\u201d Wenzel wrote. \u201c \u2018What about the masses he is getting to follow him\u2019, I asked, \u2018Is that Jones-like?\u2019 [Layton] said, \u2018No\u2019, but she added, \u2018Donald Trump really scares me\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Another online author, Stop Gun Insanity on the stop-gun-insanity.newsvine.com<\/a> site \u2013 don\u2019t any of these people have real names? \u2013 headlined his\/her piece: \u201cJust like Jim Jones got his followers to swallow the poisoned Kool-Aid, Trump is getting Middle-Class Republicans to vote against their best interests.\u201d Indeed, in regards to the economic policies that he proposes to enact as president, Trump has managed to win the support from many voters in the lower and middle ranges of American socio-economic levels, even though the plans that the candidate has put on his campaign website \u2013 such as lowering taxes for those in the upper class financial bracket \u2013 would be of absolutely no benefit to the majority of Americans.<\/p>\n In a Guest Column for the Richmond Times,<\/em> Erika Raskin of erikaraskin.net<\/a> opens with an acknowledgement that she wrote her Senior Thesis on \u201cJim Jones and the rise of American-shaped fascism.\u201d With that as her backdrop for her piece, she compares \u201cDonald Trump and Jim Jones to one another in regards to the psychological methods that they employ[ed], and found five very interesting similarities between the two men.\u201d Both Trump and Jones utilize \u201cthe art of the scam\u201d: she feels that Trump University and the false hope that it promised, is comparable to Jones\u2019 use of \u201cfaith healings\u201d in order to draw in the masses (and of course, both resulted in financial benefits to the two men). Erika also highlights how both men used \u201cmedia control,\u201d with Trump relying upon his \u201cwall-to-wall coverage on cable\u201d to project the image of himself that he wants the voters to see; Jones used his pulpit to deliver his opinions and persuade people. The third concept, \u201cShape-shifting,\u201d refers to an individual\u2019s ability to play whatever part is needed for a particular audience: while Trump uses \u201cdog whistles\u201d and speaks \u201cout of both sides of his mouth\u201d in order to convince voters that he shares their sentiments, it\u2019s also well-documented that Jones used speech patterns and mannerisms of his black followers to convince them that he \u201cembodied their hopes ideals for a decent society.\u201d Both Trump and Jones also use \u201crage as control,\u201d i.e., displaying anger in order to quell any threats to their authority. Trump does this by bullying and calling people names if they question his assertions about a variety of subjects; Jones dealt with any challenges to his authority with both verbal humiliation and physical punishment. Finally, according to Raskin, both Trump and Jones used similar psychological methods in \u201cthe creation of a common enemy and the fanning of paranoia.\u201d Jones most definitely \u201cdelineated a them\/us split\u2026 [and] stoked his followers\u2019 fears of nuclear war, governmental overreach, and American racism,\u201d whereas Trump \u201chas tapped into a vein of economic insecurity among whites, while playing cute with the Klan.\u201d<\/p>\n Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n In any political season, there are cultural icons \u2013 both heroes and villains \u2013 which both political parties will use, either to support their own candidates or tear down the other guy\u2019s. Some are reserved for one side or the other \u2013 Barack Obama and Bill Clinton are heroes for Democrats and villains for Republicans; John McCain and Antonin Scalia get more traction in Republican circles than in Democratic ones \u2013 but some are more quoted by both sides. Michelle Obama wins the respect among many Republicans, especially those seeking the woman\u2019s vote; Donald Trump has quoted Bernie Sanders on many occasions, especially when he put himself in Sanders\u2019 corner against Clinton. And everybody \u2013 including many Democrats \u2013 likes to quote Ronald Reagan.<\/p>\n But then there are the universal bugaboos. If you see a political ad featuring Osama bin Laden or Vladimir Putin, you can pretty much guarantee it\u2019s an attack ad against an opponent, and not an endorsement of anyone. But for sheer staying power \u2013 to serve as the villain for almost 40 years and still be recognizable as such \u2013 it\u2019s difficult to imagine anyone as resilient as Jim Jones.<\/p>\n As a political prognosticator, I can\u2019t predict with any certainty which 2016 presidential candidate will take Ohio or Iowa or Arizona. But I can lay solid odds that Jim Jones will be on the ballot \u2013 once again \u2013 in 2020.<\/p>\n (Other examples comparing Hillary Clinton to Jim Jones include <\/em>Hillary Clinton- the 2016 Jim Jones candidate<\/em><\/a>, a March 17, 2015 article by Dr. John on Flopping Aces; and <\/em>Hillary Clinton Announces Presidential Run Jim Jones Style<\/em><\/a>, an InfoWars video hosted by Alex Jones on June 15, 2015.)<\/em><\/p>\n (Other examples comparing Donald Trump to Jim Jones include a June 14, 2016 blog from the Washington Post, <\/em>Trump Is Close to the Abyss<\/em><\/a>; a September 1 article by David Ferguson on RawStory, <\/em>Drinking the Orange Kool-Aid<\/em><\/a>; an October 13 column in Daily Kos, <\/em>Donald Trump as Jim Jones<\/em><\/a>; and an October 27 opinion piece in Inglewood (Calif.) Today, “Who\u2019s More Dangerous\u2014Jim Jones or Donald Trump?”.)<\/em><\/p>\n (Bonnie Yates is a regular contributor to <\/em>the jonestown report. Her previous articles may be found <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>. She may be reached <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The presidential election cycle of 2016 has been interesting for many reasons. Yes, we have all been watching candidates who are considered to be larger than life \u2013 whether that is due to membership in a political dynasty, or an alliance with a belief system that the majority of Americans find overly liberal, or even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":67656,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-67666","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/67666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67666"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/67666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134250,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/67666\/revisions\/134250"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/67656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Hillary](\"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/08-yates-Hillary-Jones3.jpg\")
<\/a>Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign \u2013 and the woman herself \u2013 have inspired several comparisons to Peoples Temple and Jim Jones, and they\u2019ve been uniformly uncomplimentary. On May 13, 2016, Daniel Greenfield, writing for frontpagemag.com, began his article \u201cFormer Jim Jones Ally Endorses Hillary Clinton\u201d by detailing the relationship which numerous California politicians had with Jones and Peoples Temple during the 1970\u2019s. When the Temple moved its headquarters to San Francisco, Jones and his followers became heavily involved in the city\u2019s political scene. Although it\u2019s now understood that Jones and Peoples Temple likely didn\u2019t bring a lot of votes to the candidates they supported \u2013 and certainly didn\u2019t tip the mayoral election of 1975 to George Moscone, as many charged at the time \u2013 the group\u2019s political influence was sufficient to make politicians pay attention. In addition to Moscone, political figures such as Supervisors Harvey Milk and Dianne Feinstein, Congressman John Burton, and Governor Jerry Brown all courted Peoples Temple.<\/p>\n<\/a>In March 2016, a blogger for abovetopsecret.com<\/a> compared, not the two leaders themselves, but their respective followers. Kshikehe \u2013 single name \u2013 notes that when supporters of Hillary are exposed to information painting her in an unfavorable light, not only do they show no interest in that new information, but that \u201cthey seem to harden their position on her, regardless of how bad that information is. It reminds me of Jim Jones\u2026 [who] had rabid, sycophantic supporters who could not be persuaded by logic.\u201d There are other, more sinister similarities, between the two camps. \u201c[I]f Hillary told [her supporters] to drink the Kool-Aid, you know they would do it for her.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>While on the campaign trail in November 2015, Trump met a supporter who appeared at the rally dressed as Trump, and who acknowledged that he impersonated Trump elsewhere, even when he was with his wife. Trump was so taken by the tribute that he mentioned it in his address to the crowd. Writing for the addictinginfo.org<\/em> website, Kerry-Anne No Last Name said she felt \u201clike the \u2018Impersonator Donald\u2019 would be only too happy to hand his wife over to curry favor with his \u2018Glorious Leader.\u2019 The whole thing feels more like some Jim Jones style cult than a political campaign.\u201d Obviously disturbed by what she saw, the author ended the article with the plea, \u201cAmerica \u2013 do not drink the Kool-Aid.\u201d<\/p>\n