Reactionaries react, so it was only to be expected that as millions of fired-up Kamalamaniacs poured kabillions into Democratic coffers in the first week of the Vice President’s candidacy, a primordial strain of American politics reared its ugly head.
It was the Kamala conspiracy: her nomination was part of a dastardly master plan, a carefully orchestrated bait-and-switch hatched by those who were really running the show — that is, George Clooney, Barbra Streisand and Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria. Here was proof positive, bloviated headlines of The New York Post, of “a sinister plot to swap the octogenarian commander-in-chief at the top of the ticket for Veep Kamala Harris without voter approval”.
Exhibit A came from @EndWokeness, which tweeted: “Biden’s presidency ended the same way it began: Under a thick cloud of cover-ups, irregularities, and suspicion.” Fox News contributor Lisa Boothe adumbrated suspicions, demanding that Joe Biden resign in shame for his role in “this un-democratic coup” — a soundbite she immediately beamed out to her quarter-million followers on Instagram. America had witnessed the “coup of a puppet regime“, declared Representative Thomas Massie, of Kentucky. A “massive cover-up”, added Ron DeSantis. “They’re publicly admitting that they are an oligarchy,” harangued a hyperventilating Stephen Miller, a former White House adviser. “This is as full-frontal an attack on American democracy as we’ve ever seen in the history of America’s major political parties.”
Well, not exactly. As anyone who has been paying attention to the recent spate of Kamala memes knows, “everything is in context”. Nothing falls “out of a coconut tree”. And that includes rumours of coup and coverup.
This particular species of accusation — “the largest political cover-up in history”, as House Speaker Mike Johnson pontificated — has appeared over and over again throughout American history, and from both sides of the aisle. After the Watergate scandal, the country’s Left-wing waxed outrage when Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon, seething over what they were convinced had been a secret deal for clemency. A bit farther back, the centennial of the country was clouded by similar suspicions, as in 1876 the House of Representatives delivered the Presidency to Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio. He held up his end of the dark deal by removing federal troops from the South, thus earning for himself the Trumplican nickname, “Rutherfraud” — and enabling decades of Jim Crow.
As per usual, the strongest antecedent can be traced to the days of Andrew Jackson, who anticipated Donald Trump in many ways — from his penchant for scorning central authority and his contempt for the political and banking establishments to conspiratorial ideation regarding the economy. Way back in the 1820s, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Henry Clay, observed that Jackson “lives by excitement”, and was never “without some object of attack”. Likewise, today’s MAGAverse has unleashed an unending stream of vitriol against Harris, calling her a “radical Left lunatic”, a “bum”, “a failed vice president”, a “demon”, “dumb as a rock” and a “co-conspirator” in the bloodless coup.
While Trump declared he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not “lose any voters”, Andrew Jackson actually did commit murder — and went on to occupy the Oval Office. But he failed on his initial attempt, which was when charges of a “corrupt bargain” entered the American political tradition.
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