It is one thing to argue that holding Trump accountable in court won’t magically solve the political problem of Trumpism and the anti-democratic radicalization of the Right. But this is something different entirely – a disqualifying level of bad faith and dishonesty.

As they are rallying around the man they have chosen as their leader, nothing is ever too outlandish, too ridiculous, too bizarre, too disingenuous, too bad faith for rightwingers. There’s absolutely no line of dishonesty they don’t feel justified to cross.

One key dynamic here seems to be that those who are still on Team Trump (or committed to being anti-anti-Trump) in August 2023 have invested so much in terms of justifying their actions to themselves and to the world, and have thereby enabled such outlandish behavior.

It might be hard, even purely from a psychological standpoint, to imagine getting out now. At the very least, it would necessitate a whole lot of critical introspection: If you leave now, was it all for nothing?

All the times you had to debase and embarrass yourself in public? And the people who you have painted as the radically “Un-American” enemy, those whose witch hunt you have decried for years, are you ultimately going to let them win?

And so, they stick with Trump – and have to find ever more ridiculous, extreme justifications for why he is, at worst, the lesser evil compared to the “leftist” enemy. That is partly why rightwingers are constantly playing up the threat of “woke” radicalism and the “illiberal Left.”