At the beginning of Donald Trump's first term, the New York Times published a fantasy short story titled "How It Ends." It revolved around a Russian assassin who tried to kill Trump to cover up his country's involvement in getting him elected, which was the prevailing explanation on how Trump could have won over Hillary Clinton at the time.
In the story, the assassin gets his chance to assassinate Trump, but his Makarov misfires, causing the nearby Secret Service agent to spin around and draw his own firearm. The assassin waits for the shot that kills him, but instead, the noble Secret Service agent hands him his own gun and says, "Use mine."
I tried finding the story. It seems the NYT memory-holed it, but the internet is forever. Mediaite reminded everyone of the story after the 2024 Trump assassination attempt in Butler, PA, and I think the commentary on it was nailed in one sentence:
The message behind the prose is not hard to discern: Donald Trump deserves to die, and a patriotic American in his right mind would work toward that end.
I feel like that sentiment has only gotten worse.
As The Federalist recently reported, Tom Nichols had the same mindset in his recent piece at The Atlantic, effectively encouraging members of our armed services to turn on Trump themselves, or at the very least, defy his orders. He justified this over his use of the National Guard to curb crime in blue cities where it runs rampant, and none of its leaders will do much of anything about it:
“The leaders of the U.S. military may soon face a terrible decision.”
“… top U.S.-military commanders may have to decide whether they will refuse such orders from the commander in chief.”
“… military commanders may soon have to choose between obeying the president and obeying the law.”
After Nichols coaches the troops in insubordination and possible treason, he transitions to some scenarios he cooked up.
“Trump may be tempted to issue orders to the military that will be aimed at suppressing dissent, or disrupting elections, or detaining political figures …”
“[Trump] may even become desperate enough to launch a foreign war …”
Was Nichols absent during the Biden administration?
The Federalist continues by revealing seems to have the same mentality as the NYT fantasy author:
And finally, Nichols does something truly despicable. He disparages troops who would follow Trump’s orders, suggesting they would not be brave, and would risk going to prison, if they follow his orders.
“Even the most virtuous young officer may tremble at the idea of refusing a direct order …”
“Others may be tempted to abandon their oath, either by ideology or a misplaced sense of obedience, and they should recall [Former Air Force General John Hyten’s] warning from 2017: ‘If you execute an unlawful order, you will go to jail. You could go to jail for the rest of your life.’”
What strikes me here isn't Nichols' blatant attempts to get military men and women to potentially commit treason. What gets me is that he does it with such a misplaced sense of nobility, and we've seen that mentality since Trump came down the escalator all those years ago.
The idea that they are the good guys in the room is absolutely blowing my mind. Even as people are being murdered in the streets and crime runs rampant in blue cities. Even as it's clear that any moral high ground they might have had was stripped from them the moment they attempted to murder Trump. Even as Charlie Kirk was murdered at the hands of one of their extremists.
They believe they have the right to define virtue.
Trump is trying to curb violent crime in cities like Chicago. Succeeded in doing so in D.C., but these people on the left still believe that whatever Trump does is evil and must be stopped at all costs.
The only conclusion I can come to is that the left has emotionally manipulated itself so severely that it's entered into some sort of psychosis. I've written about this topic before. Research has shown that the left tends to embrace emotion far more than the right does, and this adherence to their own emotions causes them to act out in ways that overpower their logic and sense.
I gave an example of a man who withered when confronted for scratching a Nazi symbol into a Tesla car by the owner:
So, you see people of all stripes, some of them grown, well established adults, fully capable of making better decisions, make very stupid and childish decisions because they allowed themselves to be led by the nose by the media who is scaring these people to death intentionally in order to get them to turn their fear into anger. That anger then translates to acts of violence and vandalism, which has its own affects. As the research shows, these acts result in more acts, ginning up more division and anger.
It's only when confronted directly with consequences does the emotionally driven person seem to truly get the hint that they goofed, just like the man did in the video above. When he says he didn't intend to scratch a swastika into the man's car... he's partly telling the truth. He wasn't thinking at all. He was letting his emotions guide him, and he ended up doing something stupid he could've avoided if he just allowed himself a moment of common sense.
Read: There's Real Psychology Behind the Tesla Attacks and It Doesn't Paint Leftists Well
But they won't stop to think. They're fully self-assured that they are the virtuous, moral people in the room.
As I said in my previous article, the only thing that seems to snap them out of it, if temporarily, is confrontation and consequence. They're wrapped up in a fantasy that desperately needs breaking, because despite all the evidence, these people are still touting the idea that anyone who is a true patriot will go to extremes to restore normalcy.
This can't continue. More people are going to die if it does.
