than say fuck you I do what I want.

Worship of violence and brute strength, strongman leaders above the law, winning creates it own morality. Subservience to winners is an obligation.

Taking 1300 words to make a point that fits on a bumper sticker or two.

It's the display of intimidation, stupid.

It's the display of power, stupid.

Trump's cultists are like the people crowding around while a bully beats on some one, yelling "Yeah! Get'im!".

They like the vicarious feel of power by being "on their side", and most especially the fact that they're not the target.

As stated many times, elections have consequences. We all know republicans will do anything to win, but Putin's puppet has taken corruption to a whole new level. Like you said, his cultists don't care as long as he sticks it to the liberals. He has told them to sacrifice family members for him, and they cheer him. Jim Jones would be proud.

I think one of the things that most liberals tend to forget is that the purpose for taking back the House was to keep Trump and the GOP from going full bore fascist. It wasn't impeachment - that was always a nice to have but it is a symbolic gesture at best. It was to keep a toehold on power and prevent the GOP and Trump from enshrining his administration into law.

Had we not won back the House, we'd be a full-blown fascist state by now. As it is, for all that Trump is breaking the law daily, he can't fund his programs. He can't push forward his agenda. He will do everything in his power to stay in power, but he's facing a very hard deadline in less than six months, has a pandemic that is raging through the country (and likely like it will flare up again by September), has no vaccine in sight and has an economy which is dead in the water. If Trump falls, the Senate will fall. At that point, I fully expect that he will attempt to declare martial law. The problem with that is that he can only do so with Congressional approval, and the House won't allow that, Pelosi won't allow that. Should he lose, he may very well beseech the red states to secede. However, once he has lost, he also loses any real authority that he still retains, and I don't think there will be a governor out there who wants to ally themselves with the man who lost the election.

The last special election went to the GOP in California and Wisconsin, but it's worth looking at the subtext of the election. In California, it was an off-election replacing a Congresswoman implicated in a scandal, in a traditionally red district that will be redone in November, one where a lot of money was spent by the GOP and not much by the Democrats, with mail-in-ballots favoring the GOP for once. Wisconsin was very similar, with another election coming in November. In both cases, it was simply not worth dropping the money into elections that would be overturned in November.

Right now, Democracy is in a holding pattern. Trump will continue breaking the law, but he's also realized that his base, by itself, is not going to legitimately give him the election, and that he's pissed off the people who might put him over the edge. He's abandoned any pretext that he's in control of the Coronavirus situation, and his biggest supporters are now getting sick with it. It galls many of us to have to sit and watch patiently while Trump becomes more and more lawless, but I have no doubt, Winter IS Coming.