Trump’s base was vocally divided over the prospects of direct U.S. attacks up until the moment they happened.
The MAGA movement’s top influencers were divided over bombing Iran until Donald Trump did just that Saturday night.
Now, at least for the time being, the lay leaders in Trump’s base appear to be rallying around a position that spares Trump criticism: Direct attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities are justified, as long as American troops aren’t sent into a third full war halfway around the world in the last quarter of a century.
The thing about authoritarians is they never, ever wake up. They will justify, compartmentalize, excuse, hand wave, and intellectually retreat to protect their forgone conclusions. There is no reason behind their beliefs or behaviors, no knowledge or logic that led them to being authoritarian, and nothing will lead them out. Their identities, personalities, and egos are built wholely upon those foregone conclusions and to change their minds about those things is to essentially kill themselves and destroy their very reality, which is unthinkable. It is a mental illness that cannot be cured. It can be dampened slightly through first-hand exposure to diversity, but never completely cured. It is a significant, serious, and dangerous mental illness that has been allowed to propagate.