"There is clearly a good portion of the Republican base that in this case finds the truest expression of Trumpism in rejecting what Trump himself is telling them. Opposition to vaccines has been woven so tightly into their political identity that not even Trump himself can remove it. [snip]
"How did we get here? From the outset, the pandemic was politicized, with divisions drawn between liberals who wanted aggressive public health measures and conservatives who didn’t, egged on to deny the seriousness of the pandemic and see it as a plot concocted by enemies of Trump.
"Once aggressive public health measures became associated with Trump’s foes, feelings about the pandemic became interwoven with personal identity and one’s place in a particular community.
"And so, when the vaccines became available, they were inevitably viewed through that prism. That was true even for millions of conservatives who were perfectly fine before 2021 with having to vaccinate their kids before sending them to school, yet today recoil in rage at the very idea." -- Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent in the Washington Post on the die-hard (literally) opposition to vaccines by many members of the Trump cult.
Many have opined that Trumpism will survive Trump. The death cult within Trumpism may not.
