this is what I've had trouble putting into words. I'm now internalizing just how primed the white moderate is for morphing into a chud.

You're right too, it wasn't like this in 2016. Libs back then fell into a wormhole of anti-reality. They tricked themselves into beliving they were an organized resistance and got deep in the weeds with conspiracy theories. They seriously thought that any day now Trump would be faulted on a technicality that would remove him from office. I think now in 2024 they realize there's just nothing they can do. They already tried pee tapes, leaking his tax returns, impeaching him, leaking audio, doing the whole Russia thing, and none of it stuck. He won, again. So the liberal mind doesn't have anywhere else to go but grumbling spite that only goes in one direction if you're a white suburban comfortable liberal - blaming immigrants and gay people for everything.