Left or right, that type identify with a political group, accept the leader(s) that come with it as their own, and then adapt their beliefs to whatever the current leadership tells them to believe and support.
We've known follower types tend to do that for a long time now, and there are a lot of them, especially on the right but also on the left. But for me learning just how strong and pervasive that last is was a real shocker. Also a powerful explanation of what's happened.
Trumpsters are the evolution of the dissident right group that had risen as tea partiers in reaction to what the business-oriented GOP leadership was doing to them. They elected Trump as rebellion, and now the GOP has mostly become Trump's party because its voters support HIM --- no matter what he does.
The billionaire-backed congressional leadership is now more like a strong deposed faction trying to regain control without taking Trump on directly, because hurting him would only increase the resistance against them.
Notably, they worked for decades to successfully unhitch Republican voters from traditional conservative notions and redirect them to serve the new billionaire classes. That ultimately has broken down in rebellion, but they know full well that the trumpsters they created will support almost anything the leader they do accept does.
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