Nice analysis on a crucial topic. As I think about my three brothers who are strident liberals, your explanation may partially explain their disgust of all things Trump.
Because they are from the Boston area, I tell them that Tom Brady is voting for Trump. And because they love the Patriots -- and Brady is the Archangel of the Patriots -- this knowledge upsets them greatly. They don't quite know how to compute that knowledge, I think.
If we can understand the psychological forces that get people idolizing a particular sports team, it will help explain the idolatry for a political party or position.
A Bostonian from another era, Ralph Waldo Emerson, had some wise things to say on the subject:
But why should you keep your head over your shoulder? Why drag about this corpse of your memory, lest you contradict somewhat you have stated in this or that public place? Suppose you should contradict yourself; what then?
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.
Self-Reliance
Mencken studied political persuasion in an article called Vox Populi. And I wrote a vanity that condensed, lightly edited and rearranged that article for FReepers: H. L. Mencken Predicted Donald Trump, the Enlightened Rabble-Rouser.
In any case, you've tapped into a very important subject, so I look forward to your and others' comment.
I attribute my perspective to having watched Evan Sayet’s Unified Field Theory of Liberalism video a few times. Before hearing his description of liberalism, I lacked portions of vocabulary and clarity needed to object to what is so obviously wrong. :)
I think this is the video that began to distill my present view of liberalism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODXgGS50AVY