Make "The Dead Zone" fiction again

Would one of Stephen King's most infamous villains be electable in 2022? Maybe.

The Dead Zone is one of Stephen King’s best books, and David Cronenberg’s 1983 film is one of the best adaptations of King’s work. The movie features strong performances from cowbell enthusiast Christopher Walken in the lead role as a man blessed/cursed with an ability to see the future, and Martin Sheen as Greg Stillson, a populist politician destined to become POTUS and usher in armageddon.

Remember the hard hat fad of 1983? That was weird.

In desperation, Walken attempts to assassinate Stillson. He fails, but video of this tough-guy candidate literally holding up a baby to use as a human shield destroys his political career.¹

I wasn’t alone in thinking about Stillson when Donald Trump was running for President in 2016, and even though he had his landslide victory stolen by a cabal of Democrats, media organizations and insufficiently loyal Republicans lost in 2020, he remains an inexplicably and depressingly viable candidate despite several scandals and gaffes no other politician cou…