Lavishing excessive loyalty on a charismatic politician who doesn’t deserve it is hardly unusual in the annals of U.S. politics. But Trump supporters should be clear about the bipartisan tradition in which they’re participating: The swamp grew deep and fetid precisely because a faction in every bygone era stopped being skeptical about those in power, as if their side winning turned them into credulous sycophants.
Today, Trump is in power, and as a result, the credulous sycophants enabling abuses of power with excessive loyalty are Trump supporters. Under the next president, the sycophants will be the supporters of a new boss.
The damage that Trump will do with the support that he retains by virtue of inertia from the 2016 election and the mental error of judging him against Hillary Clinton depends on how many “lesser-of-two-evils” voters snap out of it and begin to counteract Trump “True Believers”—that is, people who tell pollsters that they trust Trump, a serial liar if ever there was one, more than their own friends and family.
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