Many reasonable people did not start with Trumpism. In fact, they first rejected Trumpism with reason, but at the end unable to succumb to their own desire for change, to feel heard, to feel powerful, to be on the "right" side.
I, for one, could easily became one of them. Back in 2016 - I was an undergraduate. I was on a student Visa, and yet, learning about Trump, I thought he was fascinating, amusing to say the very least. I also started investing in this thing called "crytocurrency" and immediately saw it as the "future of money". If the crypto sphere endorsed Trump back then, I would have supported Trump, not because I liked him, but because I was already deep into the belief that technological changes like crypto is the way we can progress as a species, and there's no better way than for a billionaire who "made it" to lead the way. I even dumped my life savings into it - ignoring any risks that may come after.
Alas, after boom / crash of Bitcoin, I've lost all my investments, at the same time developed severe anxiety. It is only then I became sober, and realized how addicted I was to the promise of cryptocurrency, even if 99% of them were just fluff and bluff.
What I'm witnessing today is, "reasonable" people could very well fall into the promise of MAGA, using very much Trumpist words to reason just about everything he could do to the country. When you are high on the ride, you think you are a genius, because everyone around you are too "liberal" to get it. This is how a cult starts. And how it ends, you never had to guess. Perhaps it is until people have lost their families, lost their jobs, lost their health, or even their lives due to simply, wrong beliefs about politics, and actively harm themselves and others along the way due to ignorance or just plain stupidity (read: inject yourself with bleach), until it is too painful to bear having to continue to act on those beliefs, that people will start to change - some Trump voters have expressed regret, but we have not seen a national scale of MAGA regret, yet. So we can expect more to double down on MAGA.
It took me around 3 years to realize that crypto is mostly a fad, after losing a bunch and developing severe anxiety due to risky investments. I was lucky to have given that lesson. However, I don't think many of us are - until it is too late.
