After having watched the clips of some PUMAS with Chris M and seeing Hillary's speech, I finally figured out who they remind me of.
More after the fold.
Several other diarists have observed that the PUMAs exist for their own reasons without the consent or approval of "their candidate", Hillary.
I recalled where I heard that idea before; it was in the movie "The World According to Garp". Some of you may recall that Garp's mother was kind of a nut and took in all sorts of crazy groups of people. Once such group was called the "Ellen Jamesians". They were a bunch of women who supported this little girl named Ellen James who had been raped and had her tongue cut out so that she couldn't tell. A bunch of women started a group in her honor and cut out their own tongues to be in kinship with her. Ellen herself denounced this group and Garp wrote a book about her. The group hated him of course because they all placed blame on him for her lack of agreement with their "commitment" to her.
The PUMAs remind me of the Ellen Jamesians, misplaced martyrdom for their own reasons, that the object of their worship does not even approve of.