How Deep is the Cult?

Is the current level of devotion to dear leader strong enough to withstand the direct negative consequences to his cultists?

We’ve seen all the outward manifestations of cult loyalty: The truck wraps and the Trump neck tattoos. The rural rallies and the Mar-a-Lago fêtes. The faux piety and the very real violence and threats of retribution. The idealized images blended with the fascist symbols of the past.

An election in which Trump was barely able to eke out a win may have been enough to return the convicted felon to the Oval Office instead of a prison cell. But the margin of victory was narrow. Trump managed to get only a measly 1.5% more of the votes than Harris — a plurality but not a majority.

• Trump — 77,303,573 votes (49.9%)

• Harris — 75,019,257 votes (48.4%)

That’s hardly the landslide that he has been claiming since Election Day and, no, they’re not still counting the votes, as he claimed in his off-the-wall press conference earlier this week.

So what happens when the inevitable negative results of Trump’s policies and actions start to directly affect the true believers? Will the devotion shown to thei…