Salon's Amanda Marcotte on Friday examined the case of Wisconsin Trump supporter Bradley Bartell, whose wife Camila Muñoz has been detained for weeks by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In her latest column, Marcotte explains why she was totally unsurprised to learn that Bartell is standing by his decision to vote for Trump even though it resulted in his wife being indefinitely detained.
Specifically, she says that right-wing media has instilled a sense of tribalism in its viewers that has made it impossible for them to think critically of Trump.
"Republicans have been swimming in decades of propaganda telling them liberals are the most loathsome people on the planet, making it all that much harder to admit that liberals were right all along," she writes. "In addition, the personalities most attracted to Trumpism are hostile to critical thinking and attracted to 'my way or the highway' attitudes that make no room to listen to disagreement."
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She then goes on to argue that "Trump and MAGA leaders have employed tactics familiar to anyone who's watched a documentary about cults" to keep followers in line, as many feel they will lose their families and communities if they turn against their leader.
"Cult members are under a deluge of conspiracy theories and disinformation, degrading their ability to think rationally and making them more dependent on the cult leadership," she writes. "Above all, they are soaked in an 'us vs. them' mentality, told constantly that outsiders are trying to destroy them."
All the same, Marcotte believes that there is hope for a small slice of Trump voters who may have backed him reluctantly in 2024 on hopes that he would improve the economy.
"The good news is that most of them didn't like Trump that much to begin with, and voted for him impulsively and even reluctantly," she writes. "That means their ego isn't as wrapped up in the vote as the more hardcore MAGA people."
