General Discussion

And that is an important psychological step.

People who have invested an entire life in an identity don't give up that identity easily. People living in Red and Red leaning places have a particularly high bar to get over because they believe/believed "everyone" around them is MAGA, when in fact, at least 1 in 4 are Dems (many of whom are no longer keeping their "heads down" ). There is no escaping the power of identity and the need to belong. Humans are social creatures

The thing is, there is movement. And that movement is accelerating. A change in party identification demonstrates serious cracks in entrenched beliefs. And those cracks open the door to a complete collapse of the residual threads binding them.