It never occurred to me until recently that the Democrats might have a candidate who generates something akin to the blind loyalty of Trump supporters.<\/p>\n
Yes, I knew that Bernie supporters were fervent, but I did not fully sense how many in his base follow the mantra of \u201cBernie or Bust.\u201d My awareness of this increased in recent days, first when my thirty-six-year-old niece said that she had switched from Elizabeth to Bernie because she was so impressed with the energy and commitment of her peers\u2019 support of Bernie. It was not the transitory type that Elizabeth had, but rather more of the \u201cto-the-very-end\u201d type that Bernie has. Later, another relative told me that much of her life was on hold while she was immersed door-knocking for Bernie in her home state of California, which wisely this year moved its primary from June up to Super Tuesday (March 3).<\/p>\n
It is hard to imagine Joe Biden generating deep loyalty and, as good as Pete Buttigieg might be, he seems to have a knack for saying things that gratuitously piss other people off. If Amy Klobuchar gets the momentum that she has earned and deserves, then she may too develop followers who will go to the mat for her.<\/p>\n
But as things stand now, Bernie is the one Democrat who has something akin to a cult following, one in which it is virtually impossibly to pry away supporters. Does that sound familiar? Well yes, the fact that Donald Trump\u2019s popularity with his base actually increased during the impeachment process shows two clear things: (1) it is virtually impossible to get his base to waver, and (2) these things called facts don\u2019t mean a whole lot, if anything, to his base.<\/p>\n
This is where there is a fundamental difference between the Bernie Cult and the Trump Cult. There is a rational foundation to why Bernie has such a strong following. We can see it in two dynamics:<\/p>\n