Now that Trump has been defeated and his most dedicated supporters are in mourning, I will try to take the high road.
But if Kevin Williamson wants to take the low road, I won’t stand in his way.
Memo to MAGA and all its myriad fellow-travelers: Maybe Death of a Salesman as presented by Leni Riefenstahl just wasn’t the show Americans were dying to tune into this season.
And, while we’re at it, maybe turning your party over to Generalissimo Walter Mitty, his hideous scheming spawn, and the studio audience from Hee-Haw was not just absolutely aces as a political strategy.
Think on it, Cletus. I know this whole thing still sounds like your idea of a good time — how’s that working out for you?
Let me refresh your memory: On the day Donald Trump was sworn in as president, Republicans controlled not only the White House but both houses of Congress. They were in a historically strong position elsewhere as well, controlling both legislative chambers in 32 states. They pissed that away like they were midnight drunks karaoke-warbling that old Chumbawumba song: In 2021, they control approximately squat. The House is run by Nancy Pelosi. The Senate is run, as a practical matter, by Kamala Harris. And Joe Biden won the presidency, notwithstanding whatever the nut-cutlet guest-hosting for Dennis Prager this week has to say about it.
Donald Trump is, in fact, the first president since Herbert Hoover to lead his party to losing the presidency, the House, and the Senate all in a single term. Along with being the first president to be impeached twice and the first game-show host elected to the office, that’s Trump’s claim to the history books. Well, that and 400,000 dead Americans and the failed coup d’état business.
As for the ratings Trump fears and worships, ask the Third Lady: Melania Trump departs the scene the most unpopular presidential wife in recorded statistical history.
You Trumpish Republicans sneered that Joe Biden was too corrupt and too senescent to win a presidential campaign, that he was one part mafioso and one part turnip.
That turnip kicked your dumb asses from Delaware to D.C.
So you rioted. Real smart move, Cletus.
Hey, he said it. Not me.
I guess it’s possible that by the time you read this, the Great Awakening will have happened, Trump has been restored to the Imperial Throne, and all of these kidnapped children have been rescued from Tom Hanks’ basement. Maybe Q got stuck in traffic on Inauguration Day or something.
If that has indeed happened, feel free to disregard this piece from The Washington Post about QAnon believers coming to the realization that maybe, just maybe, they’ve been had:
Followers of the extremist ideology QAnon saw their hopes once again dashed Wednesday as President Trump left Washington on the final day of his presidency, without any of the climactic scenes of violence and salvation that the sprawling set of conspiracy theories had preached for years would come.
As Trump boarded Air Force One for his last presidential flight to Florida, many QAnon adherents — some of whose fellow believers had earlier this month stormed the Capitol in a siege that left at least two QAnon devotees dead and others in jail — began to wonder whether they’d been duped all along.
When one QAnon channel on the chat app Telegram posted a new theory that suggested Biden himself was “part of the plan,” a number of followers shifted into open rebellion: “This will never happen.” “Just stfu already!” “It’s over. It is sadly, sadly over.” “What a fraud!”
Late Wednesday, the movement suffered another blow when the “Q Research” forum on 8kun, QAnon’s online home, was wiped clean by a site moderator, who said in a rambling screed that “I am just performing euthanasia to something I once loved very very much.” Shortly after, the site’s leaders restored the deleted material and demanded the moderator’s death.
It’s starting to dawn on the Proud Boys, too:
After the presidential election last year, the Proud Boys, a far-right group, declared its undying loyalty to President Donald Trump.
In a Nov. 8 post in a private channel of the messaging app Telegram, the group urged its followers to attend protests against an election that it said had been fraudulently stolen from Trump. “Hail Emperor Trump,” the Proud Boys wrote.
But by this week, the group’s attitude toward Trump had changed. “Trump will go down as a total failure,” the Proud Boys said in the same Telegram channel Monday.
As Trump departed the White House on Wednesday, the Proud Boys, once among his staunchest supporters, have also started leaving his side. In dozens of conversations on social media sites like Gab and Telegram, members of the group have begun calling Trump a “shill” and “extraordinarily weak,” according to messages reviewed by The New York Times. They have also urged supporters to stop attending rallies and protests held for Trump or the Republican Party.
[…]
The shift raises questions about the strength of the support for Trump and suggests that pockets of his fan base are starting to fracture. Many of Trump’s fans still falsely believe he was deprived of office, but other far-right groups such as the Oath Keepers, America First and the Three Percenters have also started criticizing him in private Telegram channels, according to a review of messages.
Last week, Nicholas Fuentes, the leader of America First, wrote in his Telegram channel that Trump’s response to the Capitol rampage was “very weak and flaccid” and added, “Not the same guy that ran in 2015.”
On Wednesday, the Proud Boys Telegram group welcomed President Joe Biden to office. “At least the incoming administration is honest about their intentions,” the group wrote.
Kovler said the activity showed that groups that had coalesced around Trump were now trying to figure out their future direction. By losing his ability to post on Twitter and Facebook, Trump had also become less useful to the far-right groups, who counted on him to raise their profile on a national stage, Kovler said.
Many people say Trump will remain a prominent figure in conservative politics and that he will keep his grip on the GOP for years to come. Maybe. But I feel like he’s already become an embarrassment, kind of like Joe McCarthy in his later years. Sarah Palin went from a Republican icon to a Masked Singer contestant in remarkably little time.
He’ll always have a cult following - in every sense of the word - but people do take notice when the guy who “fights” and promises “so much winning” really doesn’t fight and literally loses every single battle he starts.
As for QAnon, I think most of its followers will drift away, but a hard core will double down and become increasingly radicalised. I’m wary of calls to give the U.S. or Canadian governments more domestic surveillance powers, but the final QAnon holdouts might be the most dangerous of all.
The true believers can always find something to cling to:
But while some QAnon disciples gave way to doubt, others doubled down on blind belief or strained to see new coded messages in the Inauguration Day’s events. Some followers noted that 17 flags — Q being the 17th letter of the alphabet — flew on the stage as Trump delivered a farewell address.
Me, earlier this week: “Remember…any power you give the state can and probably will be wielded by the bad guys.”
Failed Democratic Congressional candidate Pam Keith: “LOL hold my beer.”
By the way, because I’m seeing this issue coming up a lot in lefty internet circles:
“news outlets shouldn’t give air time to conspiracy theorists and people who supported overturning the election and storming the Capitol.”
“bring back the fairness doctrine.”
Pick one.
One thing Biden has going for him is that he picks good staff and lets them do their jobs.
I want to see more of Harris and how she develops her role over time.