It occurred to me when I read in this NYT article that Matt Gaetz had sought a blanket pardon for himself and his associates from the Disgraced 46-1; that he had originally supported Jeb! but quickly attached himself to Trump, that Gaetz is sort of the template for how white male Christians saw Trump: you can “grab them by the pussy if you’re a star”; you “could shoot someone on Fifth Ave. and not lose any support”; the Hitler salute pledge of loyalty; the cult-like following; uber alles never apologize. The Disgustings were in thrall to the Disgraceful.

We were all taken by surprise by Trump’s rise. I remember answering my-brother-the-klansman’s question, “Why do you think none of the attacks on Trump stick?”, with, “He has a Svengali-like hold on his supporters". Guys like Gaetz saw Trump as an idol who they could emulate to get away with anything at all, and with everything. 

Is it what they always wanted to do and say or was it sort of initiation into the Winner’s Club? Trump rallies became an "in" thing in Deliverance! You could take your inbred offspring to them without feeling out of place; show off your ignorance, talk about your impotence and your wife making you a cuckold among friends who had gone through similar things; shout "Nigger!" without fear of recrimination; be violent and get away with it. Few heretofore liberals became fascist pigs overnight. More than probably the Disgusting vast majority had privately thought and fantasized about doing and being what Trump did and was. But, there were so MANY of them, including some Obama-Trump voters!, who had never acted on their latent psycho-social pathology that I am not sure what was "just" trigger to deep impulses and what was the opening of a world to them that they had never seen before, one that drew them in, and like Matt Gaetz, realized in a sudden cold panic had disappeared and now are scrambling frantically to survive the return of normalcy where actions have consequences, and  they are now the hunted, increasingly cornered and soon to be indicted, imprisoned, and Disgraced.