Some of us are old enough to remember that day when George W. Bush finally won the 2000 presidential election. Left-wing kooks called him a “squatter” after his defeat of Al Gore. The left accused Bush of engaging in a “coup” with the Supreme Court to take over the country. It was crazy.

Conspiracy theories about 9/11 followed less than two years later. “Bush knew” became a standard theory among many on the left. Then we heard, “Bush lied, people died.” Even the 2004 election didn’t escape the goofiness, with people yapping about Diebold, saying team-Bush teamed up with the company to “steal” the election by fixing voting machines in Ohio. Seriously, this was big.

Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?

Well, that’s precisely the road some conservatives have taken in their defense of Donald Trump. Only this time, instead of accusing the President of being at the center of the conspiracy, they’re setting Trump up as the victim of a conspiracy within the government. Some Humpy Trumpy people on the right have taken to blaming the so-called “deep state” for many of Trump’s troubles.

People are well aware of the deep end Sean Hannity dove from, but it’s Rush Limbaugh stepping up to the plate recently with conspiracy garbage. His latest is a real hoot:

During his radio broadcast today, Rush Limbaugh took that idea one step further by suggesting that the intel community has had it out for Republicans for a while and may have deliberately led the United States into a war in order to sabotage President George W. Bush.

“You remember what the intelligence agencies were telling us about the War in Iraq?” The conservative host wondered aloud. “You remember what they were telling us? There is detail, there were photos, there was conclusive evidence Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and it wasn’t just us. It was MI-5, it was MI-6, it was intelligence agencies all the world.”

The radio host went on to state that Bush spent a long time convincing the world and US that it was necessary to invade Iraq due to the danger he felt was imminent due to the intelligence he received. Limbaugh then tied this into Al Gore losing the 2000 election and the Washington establishment being upset over it and looking for payback.

“What if the intel on the War in Iraq was another disinformation campaign to damage another Republican president?” Limbaugh pondered. “And boy did that work!”

This kind of tomfoolery would make for a great Oliver Stone film plot, but what in God’s name is Rush Limbaugh doing even discussing the possibility? For people to have faith in the institutions that work to defend this nation from our enemies, they have to know that the work they do is in good faith, even if it is not always right.

When people like Limbaugh also float the idea those same people are concocting schemes merely to hurt a Republican president, the entire nation loses.

Think for a moment about what Limbaugh said. He’s suggesting (even the mere possibility) that the intelligence community of the United States of America purposely lied about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, thereby putting the lives of thousands of troops at risk, not to mention the people of Iraq, because they wanted to make George W. Bush look bad. 

It is not only nutty, but it is also dangerous. Why? Because people will believe it. 

Limbaugh, Hannity and other assorted characters on the right have convinced many people that corruption within the FBI runs so deep, people within the agency, at senior levels including former Directory James Comey and current Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, were all involved in a scheme to prevent Donald Trump from winning the presidential election.

It’s a crying shame. Once level-headed, even if fiercely partisan conservatives, have sunk themselves to the level of pukes such as Jim Hoft, Alex Jones and goofball “conservative” websites like Conservative Treehouse and Truepundit that only exist to show allegiance to Dear Leader Trump.

They’re a pee-stain on the mantle of conservatism. We’d be better off if they all went away.