Maybe it sticks around long enough to poison the waters for a couple more election cycles

This is kind of my best case scenario for the cult. Stick around and try their own thing, which results in siphoning votes from the Republican party.

the Republicans will eventually put the mask back on and try to pretend like nothing ever happened (though I can’t possibly predict whether that’ll work)

Oh it’ll work. After Bush Jr. Republicans pulled a “Who? Oh I didn’t know him that well”. Then they got a fascist elected. Their base has hamster brains. This whole ordeal should have buried the Republican party in a deep unmarked grave. But it won’t.