Heather Cox Richardson 2/25/26
State of the Republican Party
...it was indeed stunning that Republican members of
Congress cheered and applauded at the attacks on
their colleagues. In his 1951 The True Believer: Notes
on the Nature of Mass Movements, philosopher Eric
Hoffer noted that once people are wedded to a
strongman, they will cling to him ever more tightly as
his behavior becomes more and more erratic. This
loyalty is in part to demonstrate their own devotion to
the cause, and in part to justify their own attacks on
those the strongman has given them permission to hurt.
