The antipathy exhibited by Leftists towards the MAGA movement (and tacitly endorsed by most of the rest of the political class, of all hues) is something to behold. Trump's presidency was continually undermined by these elements, from Russiagate all the way through to the final, unconstitutional post-term impeachment and at every point in between. Trump Derangement Syndrome achieved epidemic status among Democrats and Republicans alike. At the time, it was generally accepted that this was for the reasons put forward by the progressives, namely Trump's belligerence – which affronted them - and his alleged corruption, which made him unfit for high office.
While there is no doubt that the former president's manner doesn't appeal to everyone (to say the least), particularly to some of those from the constituency that ought to matter most – the voters – this is not the elites' most fundamental objection to Trump. A significant number of the population just wanted to return to a time when things were quieter, less abrasive, less confrontational. They didn't necessarily devote much of their thinking time to working out why public life had become so much more fractious and who was to blame for it. The assumption was that it was Trump himself that was the problem, which is true as far as it goes, but not wholly for the obvious reasons.
For the elites, however, there are far deeper objections to what Trump represents and the combative way that he advocates for it. Trump is the spearhead of the MAGA movement (Make America Great Again) in terms of domestic policy and America First in the sphere of foreign policy and it is here, in the area of political philosophy, that the source of the globalists' visceral hatred of Trump is to be found. The sound and the fury, the noise that is all pervasive at the superficial level, simply masks this truth. That's not to say that there isn't a genuine element to their anger – merely that it is more grounded in their own character defects than it is in any of the former president's shortcomings.
It's obvious when you think about it. How could a movement that is predicated on the notion that charity begins at home be anything other than the polar opposite of the globalist vision? Trump's agenda was (is) as follows:
Restore American prosperity by exploiting energy resources, cutting taxes and incentivising America production.
Make the southern border secure.
Rebuild the military, which had become anemic under Obama.
Act against identity politics.
Appoint judges who respected the Constitution, rather than activists committed to 're-imagining' it.
Put America First with foreign policy.
Challenge China on unequal trade policies.
Insist that NATO partners pay their share.
Reject Iran nuclear deal.
Exit the Paris Climate Accords.
Seek peace in the Middle East with the Abraham Accords.
No new wars.
There is not a single piece of that agenda that the globalist elites agree with. A strong nation state is anathema to them. They are far keener on supranational unelected quangos like the UN, the EU, the IMF and the WHO telling us what to do, while simultaneously making a mockery of our chosen democratic systems. To them, wars are an essential extension of their will and an opportunity for vast profits; you only have to look at what Biden has done in Ukraine ($65 billion dollars and counting) to see that policy in action. They put America last and themselves first. Again, look at what happens when progressives get hold of energy policies, ostensibly to 'save the planet', but actually in order that they may cement their control over what they hope will soon be an underclass.
Trump's record is not unblemished, but neither does it represent failure. He attempted to do what he said he would do, which makes a pleasant change. Not only that;
“By the time Trump left office, America was a net exporter of energy; illegal immigration had slowed to a trickle; before the onslaught of COVID, his policies had resulted in the lowest unemployment in decades, the lowest minority unemployment ever. Wages were rising, especially at the lower rungs, and the stock market was booming. All-in-all, MAGA meant American prosperity and success.”(1)
These outcomes could not be tolerated by the elites. As documented elsewhere in my ramblings (100 Days, Laying The Groundwork), they decided to take Trump out, by fair means or foul, which in practice means exclusively foul. The allegations that Trump had colluded with the Russians to fix the 2016 election turned out to be demonstrably false. It was revealed that the FBI 'investigation' was instigated before Trump had even taken office and it took over two years to come to its inevitable conclusion; two years of constant lying and disinformation by the very same media that purports to be the sole arbiter of the truth and the only entity capable of defining what 'misinformation' is.
Additionally, Trump refused to bend the knee to the progressives and their media allies. He called them out, insulted them and labelled them fake news and the Left simply cannot tolerate ridicule. They will not accept genuine opposition; they can only countenance the controlled variety. These are not nice people, which is why they are the Far Left to begin with. It's a personality thing. Intolerant, dogmatic know-nothings are attracted to an ideology that is predicated on those very same qualities. There is no negotiating with them. They will only compromise tactically; it won't last. They will inevitably renew any paused offensive when the opportunity presents itself.
Trump knows this and he's not afraid to let everybody else know, too. This challenge is regarded as a clear and present danger to the administrative state and the Democratic Party, both of whom occupy the same ideological space. It's clearly not in their best interests to permit anybody to draw back the veil and reveal them for the autocrats that they truly are. And so their anger towards Trump is largely genuine, but it has emerged from the wellspring of intolerance and fear.
Intolerance because the progressives are utterly convinced of their own rectitude – if any group that cleaves to a belief system that has, front and center, a guiding philosophy which holds that the ends justifies the means in any and all circumstances can really lay claim to even a scintilla of moral virtue – which means that those holding opposing views are not only wrong, but evil too.
And fear because the longer that their true nature is exposed to those still in possession of their critical faculties, the more difficult it becomes to pursue their real objectives, rather than the ones they have floated for public consumption. As Kint observed in The Usual Suspects (and as Baudelaire may have done previously) “the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn't exist.”
The Department of Justice (through their enforcement arm, the FBI) are still going after Trump. The raid on his home in Florida, ostensibly to search for classified documents, but probably to hijack material concerning his persecution whilst in the White House, has all the makings of another frame. An ex-president has considerable latitude with regard to his papers – he may de-classify as he sits fit, for starters. Further, Trump is untitled to unfettered access to his archived documents for twelve years, while the sitting President has no such access unless the incumbent can show that;
“such records contain information that is needed for the conduct of current business of the incumbent President’s office and that is not otherwise available.”(2)
The National Archives already 100 million of Trump's presidential papers. When they asked him for the few boxes of non-digitalised papers he still held, he asked to see his papers with regard to Russiagate. Incredibly, or not so much in reality, the Archives refused on the grounds that they were too sensitive. In doing so, they broke the law but, naturally, it is Trump who is being investigated, not them. The DoJ just needs a pretext; they are going to criminally charge him, if at all possible.(3)
However, it doesn't stop with Trump. The regime must also destroy anyone that supports the MAGA agenda as well, because it is an existential threat to their entire narrative. MAGA cannot be allowed to flourish; not openly, at least. Who knows whether they are foolish enough to believe that driving the movement underground is an effective strategy? My suspicion is that it suits their purposes very well, for reasons I will set out shortly.
By my back-of-a fag-packet calculations, the FBI and the DoJ have targeted at least eleven Trump associates and have jailed several of them. This campaign started before the former president took office, while he was in office and continues to this day. Many of the alleged offences are technical in nature and the investigations are a clear example of partisan prosecution. Additionally, up to 50 raids have been conducted on the homes of Trump supporters across the country, 35 of them on the same day.(4)
That 's without considering the manner in which the January 6th 'insurrection' has been characterized and prosecuted. Not only is there strong evidence to show that they were at least 20 federal agents and informers on the ground at the Capitol on that day (this, from the government's own court filings)(5), but there are clearly identifiable people, prompting and guiding the action, who have not even been sought, let alone apprehended. Additionally, the Capitol police opened doors to allow protesters entry. The FBI, sinking further and further into corruption, has been farming out January 6th cases to field offices around the country so that it can create the impression that 'domestic terrorism' is a national phenomenon. According to whistle-blower testimony, they have also retroactively designated a grassy area outside the Capitol as restricted, so that they might widen the net of victims that are prosecuted. This area was not restricted on January 6th.(6) The level of lawlessness this reveals is difficult to get to grips with. It seems that the regime is willing to go to extreme lengths to get its way; the January 6th riot itself has all the makings of an engineered, false flag operation.
Naturally, there has been no corresponding attention paid to anybody left of the political center, least of all the Biden family, despite witness testimony and physical evidence that amply demonstrates the criminality and grifting of Biden himself, his son and his brother. The story of Hunter Biden's laptop, which he abandoned at a repair store, was kept from the American voters prior to the 2020. When polled afterwards, 16% of Democrat voters stated that they would not have cast their votes for Biden had they known.(7) Currently, 63% of Americans think that the story is at least somewhat important.(8)
So, Trump, his prominent supporters and anybody anywhere near the Capitol on January 6th 2021 are all in the cross-hairs of the regime. But, just to be sure that we don't misunderstand what this is really about, the elites are wasting no time in setting us straight. This is Biden himself;
“MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of a free election. And they’re working right now, as I speak, in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself.”(9)
Figure 1
This was the setting for that speech. The Marines flanking Biden are an interesting touch, given that the military is reputedly apolitical. Nothing particularly unifying about any of it. This wasn't the first time that he had voiced similar sentiments. A few weeks prior, he had had this to say;
“What we’re seeing now is either the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA philosophy . . . It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins the—I’m going to say something: It’s like semi-fascism.”(10)
His press secretary clarified Biden's thinking, if we can dignify it as such;
“The president thinks there is an extremist threat to our democracy. The president has been clear as he can be on that particular piece … The way that he sees is the MAGA Republicans are the most energized part of the Republican party – that extreme, this is an extreme threat to our democracy, to our freedom, to our rights.”(11)
In yet another bon mot, Biden went one further and threatened his opponents;
“For those brave right-wing Americans… if you want to fight against the country, you need an F-15. You need something little more than a gun.”(12)
Even the irrelevancy that is Hillary Clinton was at it, labeling Trump supporters Nazis and casting herself and her Democrat comrades as the saviors of democracy.(13) If you're going to lie, I guess you might as well make it a whopper. All of this verbiage has an effect, though. It legitimizes hatred and, implicitly, encourages violence. Ironically, the Left even has a shiny new name for these tactics, which they naturally attribute to Trump. It's called stochastic terrorism; apparently, when a conservative criticizes somebody on the left, they aren't only engaging in political debate. They are also “stoking hatred” so that someone else on the Right can commit acts of political violence on their behalf.(14) Unsurprisingly, it only applies in one direction. A Leftist cannot be guilty of the same offence.
Examples of political violence aren't hard to find – the problem is that it is the Leftists and their racist fellow travelers that perpetrate them. Within three weeks of Biden's speech, a Leftist ran over a teenager, killing him, because he somehow thought the kid was part of a Republican extremist group.(15) He was initially bailed, naturally. An African American racist drove his SUV into a Christmas parade in Wisconsin prior to Christmas, killing six and injuring dozens more.(16) Yet another attack was perpetrated by a man called James Hodgkinson, who shot four Republican politicians in 2017, while they were practicing for a baseball match.(17)
Political violence of the most flagrant stripe was fully in evidence in the summer of 2020, when phase one of the color revolution that eventually resulted in the coup that ousted Trump, was instigated. These 'mostly peaceful riots' in scores of US cities (140 in 20 states) resulted in well over $1 billion in damage and at least 25 deaths and were conducted by BLM, Antifa and like-minded individuals.(18) This is what one of them felt emboldened to say on TV:
“If this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it. All right? And I could be speaking figuratively. I could be speaking literally. It’s a matter of interpretation.”(19)
I may not be a legal expert, but my interpretation would be that those statements sound a teeny bit like a genuine call for insurrection. Plenty of people certainly took him at his word and burnt some of the infrastructure down, but the FBI didn't come knocking on his door at six o'clock in the morning. No action was taken, because his rhetoric suited the narrative.
Can you imagine what would have happened if the rioters had been MAGA enthusiasts? We would never have heard the end of it. Instead, Democrats donated to the the Minnesota Freedom Fund, an organisation supported by the current VP, Kamala Harris,(20) which stumped up the bail money for any thug incompetent enough to get arrested by police who had mostly be ordered to stand down and let the rioters get on with it.
Further bias was in evidence in the early part of this summer, when conservative Supreme Court justices were threatened as a result of some upcoming decisions, which had been leaked to the press. All six of them were denied the protection to which they were entitled by law. One of the protesters traveled to Justice Kavanaugh's house with the intention of assassinating him and was only captured because he gave himself up to police. The DoJ and the White House refused to condemn the protests, even though they were illegal and then refused to explain themselves.(21)
When you really want something to happen, it's natural to want to move things along where possible, to get there a little quicker. Or, instead, to arrive at an outcome that seems to be wholly implausible when the sequence of events that would be required to achieve that particular end is factored into the equation.
When regimes want to achieve a desired outcome, one that is not likely or which is wholly unlikely, there are three tried and tested methods that may be utilized; outright dissembling, the engineered crisis and the false flag operation. Lying about things is an effective tool, particularly if the likelihood of discovery is low although, increasingly, even that danger has been mitigated. If you're on the right team, most infractions can be memory holed, no matter how egregious, and the people are compelled to ignore them on pain of denouncement or ostracization.
A crisis can be induced using a variety of means – allegedly myopic policies which can be derided as a product of stupidity or adherence to an ideology, perhaps via the use of sanctions (a particular favorite) or by using the private sector to enact measures that the regime is forbidden from deploying itself, thus providing a sheen of plausible deniability. False flag attacks are events that can can be attributed to hostile entities but which are, in fact, carried out by the regime itself. Either way, the outcome can be almost wholly controlled because little is left to chance. The random variables that normally influence matters are removed.
I suspect that this is what will happen. There isn't a cat in hell's chance that the upcoming elections will on the level. We know that the last one wasn't and there were undoubtedly others before that which attracted little attention because the veil had not yet fallen from our eyes. We don't actually know what the baseline of support for each party is any more. However, the Democrats and the deep state bureaucracy are surely all in now. They cannot stop and allow a reversal of any of their agenda and they cannot allow the Republicans to instigate impeachment proceedings or launch investigations – not that we know that they will.
In fact, the signs are there from both parties, not just the Democrats. The GOP has made very little of Biden's EO mobilizing the federal government to 'get out the vote'. The head of the Republican National Committee (RNC) is on the record as saying that she thinks they will take four seats to win back the House and one to gain a majority in the Senate – not exactly a ringing endorsement of her party's candidates and close enough to a loss that it will not require any expressions of outrage if the vote goes against her.(22)
The Democrat Pelosi went on late night television to download what the regime wishes to be true, namely that the Left will pick up seats in November and maintain their grip on all the levers of power, a prediction that has no basis in the real world.(23) But we're not living in a world where things happen the way they should and we haven't for some considerable time. It's just that we can see it now. The regime media is working overtime in an attempt to persuade those gullible enough to still be paying attention to them that the Republicans vote is going to desert them because of their pro-life stance.
This isn't true and the media knows it as they have seen the same polls as everyone else; food security and the economy are the top priorities for voters – only 8-9% mention abortion as a political issue and I would suggest that most of them are likely to be Democrats anyway.(24)(25) Polling also reveals that 75% of Democrats want someone other than Sleepy Joe on the ballot in 2024, which indicates a certain lack of enthusiasm in the here and now that is unlikely to bolster the Leftist's mid-term hopes.(26)
Even a relatively popular administration loses a substantial number of seats in the mid-terms, regular as clockwork. Since the Second World War only two administrations gained House seats in these elections; Bush (after 9/11) and Clinton and only 8 and 4 respectively. In contrast, the other seventeen occasions have featured a number of schoolings for the incumbent President - the biggest losers featuring Obama and LBJ, the social justice warriors of their generations, with losses of 63 and 47 respectively. The average loss is around 30 seats. The historic Senate record isn't much better; the score here stands at 13-4 with two even. Obama managed to lose 6 and 9 respectively. The only gainers were JFK, Nixon, Bush Junior and Trump.(27)
With opinion polls citing the fact the 85% of Americans think that the country is heading in the wrong direction,(28) including 78% of Democrats, it is inconceivable that the progressives will not receive a shellacking, notwithstanding the fact that the GOP features many ersatz candidates, that will not be regarded with enthusiasm by the MAGA contingent. However, voters can still see the virtue in voting for a party that will slow the descent into the abyss, even if it incapable of doing anything as dynamic as reversing the direction of travel.
But the normalization of the MAGA domestic terrorist trope would not have been attempted if there wasn't a perceived need for it. The targeting of anyone remotely connected with Trump, the corruption of the justice system and the FBI, the full court press in the media – taken together, this is a considerable amount of expended energy. Yes, progressives are unpleasant, intolerant, vindictive people. But they are also the type who cannot countenance losing, who believe that the means justifies the ends (their ends) and who don't care what the rest of us think. They are perfectly capable of constructing an edifice of falsehood and then acting on it.
We have the evidence before us already. The process is always the same and it's played out with the climate change hoax, the 'pandemic', the experimental gene therapies masquerading as 'vaccines', the deadly side effects of said 'vaccines' that were a deliberate part of the design and many other circumstances besides. When something egregious happens yet nothing is done about it, over time it becomes normalized. The true facts are never acknowledged, the lie becomes the narrative and everybody moves on.
To a degree, whether people believe the lie or not is secondary until the end game comes into view, when the final push to accept totalitarianism takes place. At that point, it would be favorite if we all took a knee and accepted our fate, but even then it doesn't really matter whether we believe or we are simply intimidated and submit. However, while we're on our journey to that destination, they simply need to maintain momentum and have their lies publicly accepted as the truth.
This, I believe, is the most likely outcome. An engineered crisis, in the form of a hugely fraudulent election which simply cannot be ignored, which flushes out the resistance and then provides the regime with the excuse they need to round up as many dissidents as possible, would seem to be on the cards. And, naturally, if the MAGA movement fails to respond to the provocation, there will be a false flag event, another fedsurrection featuring alleged extremists, federal agents and informants. Whatever this 'insurrection' looks like this time, it will take place in a Democrat stronghold (Chicago, New York, San Francisco or more likely Washington DC again) because the show trials that follow will need to be a guaranteed success and the best way to ensure that outcome is to try defendants in a jurisdiction that is overwhelmingly Leftist.
There is another possible scenario and that is that the Democrats allow themselves to lose the House and/or Senate and Biden continues to rule by Executive Order, as he has to date in large part. If he is willing to ignore the Constitution (which he is) and the executive branch of government is prepared to ignore the illegitimacy of this strategy and carry on regardless, then who needs Congress?
This would certainly be a less risky option from the Democrat perspective, but it would not be typical of the way they generally operate. Look at the way they have escalated the Ukrainian conflict or the repeated provocations to the Chinese over Taiwan; this is an administration whose raison d'être is the destruction of civil society, so that they may remake it in a way that suits them and others like them.
Plus, of course, losing control of Congress would equate to a negation of the 'mandate of the American people' – a 'fact' that they have continually referenced – and this is a prospect that won't appeal. They don't like to lose and they got away with cheating last time, so why wouldn't they try again? And a Republican victory would not flush out all the 'ultra MAGA' deplorables and it does seem that this is a desired outcome.
There are other indicators, too. Inevitably, the usual suspects are on display, including that master of clairvoyance, Bill Gates, who now fancies himself as a political analyst too. For reasons known only to him and his co-conspirators, Gates believes that there will be a 'hung' election and a civil war, the blame for which will naturally fall on 'conspiracy theorists'.(29) The FBI is warning about election day violence and offering training on violent confrontations;
“Federal officials are offering state and local election officials training to “safely de-escalate” confrontations with voters that could turn violent ahead of November’s midterm elections, according to an email to election workers obtained by CNN.
The move underlines the level of concern ahead of the upcoming elections and comes in response to a steady stream of violent threats and harassment that election officials have faced since the 2020 election, much of it from people who falsely claim that the vote was marred by fraud.”(30)
Or, to put it another way, when voters protest about the blatant irregularities they encounter...again. There are some commentators who are starting to wake up;
“Another explanation is that potential election inconsistencies will arise in November and the establishment knows this; so they are building a narrative in advance to attack any conservatives that raise questions and accuse them of “working against democracy” or “insurrection.””(31)
But mostly, it's business as usual. This is all the same game; the game that the official opposition doesn't have the cojones for. Climate denier, anti-vaxxer, misinformationist, proponent of the Big Lie, ultra MAGA Far Right domestic terrorist; this is the fake world that they have created and the one that the controlled opposition has accepted.
This could all end in a very bad place. Obama signed a piece of legislation, the National Defense Authorization Act, that codifies the military's authority to carry out domestic anti-terrorism operations on US soil.(32) It's not difficult to imagine how widely this can be interpreted and the law itself is vague enough to permit it to be interpreted as applying to the detention without trial of American citizens, as well as foreign terrorists operating on US soil. Nor is it a stretch to see the connective tissue between this legislation and the constant mantra that all MAGA are domestic terrorists in the making.
The anti MAGA narrative is clearly co-ordinated. The regime doesn't really have any place to go other than on the offensive and recent history should inform as to what is coming next. The relentless campaign against the January 6th protesters and anybody even tangentially connected to the 'insurrection' is the template. The message is clear, as it is with anyone who dares to question any of the elites' lies – stick your head above the parapet and you'll get one between the eyes.
In their regime's eyes, they have created the conditions whereby they can ritually abuse anyone who questions what happens on November 8th. In their view, there is no single entity powerful enough to counter whatever plans they have, so they will not be dissuaded from taking out anybody who opposes them. They will put the same stroke that they always pull – they will undermine the democratic process and then accuse those that protest of being undemocratic. They will bank on the widespread cowardice that has been a notable feature of the past three years and they'd probably be right to do so.
Tell a lie often enough and a person starts to believe it. Tell it some more and it becomes a cultural norm. When this norm is passed down through generations, it becomes a tradition. This methodology has worked for the elites for decades. They are banking on it continuing to do so, but if that is to happen then the dissenters will need to be dealt with. They have done their level best to normalize the repression of dissent; this time around, it might just get kinetic. And what other options do the people have? Bend over and take another one for the team? At some point, something will have to be done. A second blatant election steal in a row might prove to be the match in the tinder box.
Citations
(1) https://amgreatness.com/2022/09/03/biden-puts-the-total-in-totalitarianism/
(2) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nxJHlu3jqN5njXLM8J8QTrzRsiE4M_p1/view
(3) https://amgreatness.com/2022/10/14/archives-politicization-portends-another-russiagate/
(4)
https://twitter.com/charliekirk11/status/1568308710363254784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1568308710363254784%7Ctwgr%5Ee55954116204da4306d95a052c804e2911222296%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2022%2F09%2Fbombshell-steve-bannon-tells-charlie-kirk-35-trump-allies-homes-raided-fbi-thursday%2F
(7) https://thepostmillennial.com/flashback-16-of-biden-voters
(9) https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/09/no_author/biden-launches-divisive-attack-on-maga/
(10) https://amgreatness.com/2022/09/02/joe-accuse/
(11)
https://twitter.com/thejcoop/status/1565055591634112515?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1565055591634112515%7Ctwgr%5E16aa71741cf7f7ff76680ef459a6f8497d5f9a7c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2022%2F08%2Fkarine-jean-pierre-says-people-voted-trump-extreme-threat-democracy-freedom-rights-video%2F
(12)
(13)
(14) https://www.revolver.news/2022/10/stochastic-terrorism-new-regime-catchphrase-for-political-dissent/
(15) https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/man-released-running-over-teen-113332690.html
(16) https://nypost.com/2021/11/21/suv-drives-into-parade-in-wisconsin-possible-shots-fired/
(17) https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/james-hodgkinson-shooting-republicans-baseball-game
(18) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/31/americans-killed-protests-political-unrest-acled
(19) https://www.foxnews.com/media/black-lives-matter-leader-burn-down-system
(20) https://alphanews.org/kamala-harris-fund/
(24) https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220824005298/en/
(25) https://www.prweb.com/releases/2022/8/prweb18828049.htm
(26) https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/26/politics/cnn-poll-biden-2024/index.html
(27) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_midterm_election#Historical_record_of_midterm
(28) https://edition.cnn.com/2022/06/30/politics/polls-us-wrong-direction/index.html
(31) https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bidens-red-rant-are-conservatives-being-set-scapegoats-disaster
Figure 1 https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bidens-red-rant-are-conservatives-being-set-scapegoats-disaster