I also think that, after getting up to speed, they’d fight pretty hard against measures that are meant to backslide us to that point again.

If only that were true. That is at least a rational response that can be worked around.

But COVID told us just how many conservatives will laugh on their death bed if they’ve been convinced that what’s happening to them ‘owns the libs’.

It’s a cult and so reality is whatever the cult leaders say it is, even if that reality is harming them directly.