GOP painted a false picture of reality for their supporters to live in and made it real for them. When that picture started to peel away revealing glimpses of what the real world actually was, many of their members reacted to that by denying what was real in order to keep living in the fake world they preferred, the one where they are always right about things when these things they believe in is nothing more than a mirage that solely benefits their corrupted leaders and not themselves.
In order for their corrupted leaders to keep their followers under their control, the fake world of theirs had to become a world where their strongest emotions were exploited to the point where these folks had to leave their common sense and situational awareness of reality behind them in order to keep the faith and the false sense of security that fake world they lived in gave them. This conflict of living in a fake world while denying the evidence the real world was constantly shoving in their faces is to me the reason why so many conservatives are angry and confused, a condition that their leaders exploit with glee by blaming the liberal baby killers and border crossers for their illnesses.
Having no basis of reality to rely on for guidance, anything was now possible in that contrived world of theirs, where people like Donald Trump, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'reilly, Hannity, Carlson et al could spout lies and disinformation at will 24/7 and all of it was real to their followers because nothing was actually real for them to begin with.