QAnoners called it “The Storm.” The long-awaited gotterdammerung when heroic Trump would at last spring his trap and destroy the insidious Satanic deep-state cabal of baby-eaters. Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, Obama, and all their ilk would be arrested, shipped off to Gitmo, and the rightful god-emperor would reign in glory.
Right up till noon on the 20th they sat before their TVs, in their millions, readying celebratory popcorn, all psyched up, certain their dream must surely now, at this final hour, play out. And then President Biden calmly took the oath. What? How could that possibly be allowed to happen? The whole inauguration day indeed going off without a hitch, without a murmur of tribulation, in fact awesome, puissant, and beautiful. Quickly restoring the America of grace and dignity we used to take for granted. Instead of Biden’s arrest, it’s hundreds of January 6’s QAnon and allied white supremacist insurrectionists being rounded up.
There’s flummoxed consternation in Trumpian La-La Land that “The Storm” didn’t happen. Some true believers, like those crackpot preachers who schedule the world’s end, will now simply change their storyline. Set a new date. Fret not, the plan’s all still good. Be assured Trump is playing four-dimensional chess. Others, however, are shaken in their faith. Feeling played for fools. Some now actually denouncing Trump as . . . wait for it . . . weak. And some even dare whisper that maybe, just maybe, he was all along only a con man in it for himself.
Gee, ya think?
It’s easy to laugh, but it’s really no joke that millions of Americans have such a tortured relationship with reality. It doesn’t take many of them to pose a huge ongoing terrorism threat. And even with Trump and Parler banned from the internet, the inflammatory messages continue. There’s still Fox — indeed, intensifying its demented bilge-spewing in an effort to outflank new rivals even more extreme. Fox’s creep squad has been cursing out those Congressional Republicans who retained a sufficient vestige of responsibility to refuse to support the overthrow of American democracy based on an insane traitor’s lies.
But Trump reportedly may have a new plan: start his own political party. To which I say: Great idea! Go for it — please!
He’ll call it the Patriot Party. His cultists do fancy themselves the ultimate in patriotism. Even while flaunting the flag of a country that made war against America (the Confederacy). The party’s symbol would be a lion. A perfect, perhaps Freudian choice: The Lyin’ Party.
Actually, the logic is baffling. As if the Republican party isn’t Trumpy enough for him. What can he gain? But rationality has never been his hallmark.
Anyhow, Donald will of course be the Patriot Party’s 2024 candidate. Or, if the Senate can muster the sanity to disqualify him, then Donald Junior. The old Republican party will stagger on. With their nationwide vote thusly split, Trump (whichever one) will carry West Virginia, Mississippi, and Alabama. GOP nominee Rubio might carry Florida. Harris all the rest.
Let the “Patriots” also run candidates in every Senate race, every House district — heck, for all state offices too. Dividing the Republican vote everywhere, annihilating themselves. Then Democrats, reigning totally, can undo all the voter suppression, and persecution of immigrants, and much else that Trump “achieved.” Maybe reform the filibuster and the Supreme Court. And amend the Constitution to finally get rid of the blood-soaked Second Amendment. And of course the undemocratic electoral college. So Republicans (or their spin-offs) can never get power again.
Now that would be a storm. Trump may be deranged enough to bring it on. Let’s hope.
