Proving beyond a doubt that their messiah is a fraud only makes the faith of cult members stronger.

It is an interesting phenomenon. You'd think that if you proved to someone that they're backing a liar, that they would turn their anger against that liar, but they don't.

Reliably.

It's interesting because the Bible actually contains one of the most surprisingly self-aware explanations of this concept.

it's 1 Corinthians 15:14-19 and it explains exactly why true beievers cannot be swayed by being debunked.

"And if Christ has not been raised our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised"

"For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. "

"Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied."

The message here is clear.

'If what we base our faith on is not true, then we have been living a lie, and have harmed people, and everything we have considered true and right and just is wrong"

Of course you can have two reactions to realizing that you've been dumping energy and faith into a fraud. You could::

1) Cut your losses, re-evaluate your whole life, find entirely new meaning and cope with harm caused or...

2) Insist the debunk is a lie and maintain status quo

The problem is that you have already invested a great deal in your belief. You may have alienated friends, changed values, committed money.

Accepting that it's a fraud involves admitting those costs are already sunk, and THEN investing more effort repairing the damage.

It's easier to just stick with what you believe. Even in the face of contradictory facts.

Especially if you already caught flak for your beliefs in the first place. Catching more is no big deal.

I tell you all this so that you will understand better why no mountain of evidence will convince the GOP to abandon the President.

He has made them give up too much to turn back now.

People have been hurling vitriol at Trump voters since the beginning, so a bit more isn't going to faze them.

Tell them he's a criminal, a fraud, a sex offender... It doesn't matter. He is them and they are him.

The will not accept about him what they won't for themselves.

The thing is.

Most of them KNOW. They know and there's no way to save face. They've done and said and defended horrible things in the name of this President.

So they can either face that... or they can hold out hope that society will stoop to their level and absolve them.

In this case, society is indeed stooping to their level and what would otherwise have been egregious is increasingly normalized, meaning that there is no reason for them to step away from their beliefs.