Meanwhile, back in Chappaqua:

[Hortensis]

22. :) Ah, a national glitch in the matrix might just explain

the unbelievable. I've been feeling as if I might have fallen through a wrinkle in time. Your visit to family sounds as if it might have facilitated some timeline shift the right direction. It obviously contains some nice memories.

Regarding these people, no to their being clandestine Republicans. Notably, though, a quarter of that leader's primary followers (the subset who shared their attitudes) refused to vote Democratic and half of those voted directly for tRump after a liberal Democrat got the liberal, Democratic nomination. Whether it was a shift from one populist leader to another or done mostly out of spite, in these people ideology had little to do with what seemed in electoral effect a shift from the idealistic, socialist left to the archconservative, fascistic right. Much less confusing: both camps offered authoritarian leadership and the opportunity to indulge antagonisms against liberal Democrats and "the establishment."

Not nearly as weird or unusual as it might sound. People on both left and right who are prone to political extremism, and/or caught up in the passions of populist movements, and/or with authoritarian personality leanings have a whole lot of traits and behaviors in common. Those similarities with tRump's "lock her uppers" were what we saw in the zealots who were selected to attend the convention and then acted out their extreme loyalties, irrationally dishonest beliefs, antagonisms,etc.

Btw, what happened in 2016 turned a spotlight on LW authoritarianism playing out on a national stage. It had previously gone mostly unnoticed, even doubted by some, as attention, and fear, were understandably focused on the dangerous rampages of its massive RW twin. But "lock her up!" is just shorthand for a whole set of glaring identifiers.