It is probably not unlike a cult. I use “cult” as an objective term.
And like a cult, the person has to realize that it is bad.
I believe that the problem is that an indoctrinated Liberal doesn’t look beyond the surface and the false promises.
They are “brainwashed.”
The liberalism of my time was all about feelings and guilt. One quick example. I was once aboard a gorgeous yacht, in a fairly rarified MA harbor, getting ready to watch a private fireworks display. The hostess said she was going to “pour” (the champagne). I mistook her comment for a reference to the “poor” - and felt such relief. It was good to know that even in the midst of such opulence we, good liberals that we all were, had not forgotten the poor.
When I realized she meant ‘pour’, I didn’t think, ‘X, you miserable liberal. Can’t you get past your guilt long enough to enjoy one night of fireworks?’ Rather, I thought, ‘What a shame, that we aren’t thinking of the poor after all’.
It’s a mindset where your feelings of guilt comingle with feelings of moral superiority—WE are the ones who think about the poor—to produce a non-functioning brain. Sad but true.
As for a cult, the liberalism that superseded that of my day is much more cultish. It is far stricter, in terms of what kind of thinking is ‘allowed’, and it relies far more heavily on hatred of ‘them’ (vs us). So to me it is the more cultish version of the ideology. Ymmv.