The media frenzy that greeted the victory of Donald Trump is now reaching a pinnacle of manic hysteria.  Every single day, it seems, there is some new toxic, trumped-up accusation: He’s a Russian agent!  He’s obstructing justice!  He’s wants to repeal the First Amendment!  Members of the media, who are indeed playing to Trump’s characterization of them as the “enemy of the people,” have worked themselves up into such a frothy-mouthed fit that it’s hard to see how much longer this can go on.  And the political class is mobilizing—both the Democratic and Republican wings of it—for the coup de grâce.

They mean to get rid of him, by hook or by crook—and is it me, or have there been an unusual number of fence-jumpers at the White House since Trump took office?

This series of alleged crises all bear the marks of being manufactured, and rather shoddily constructed at that: They have the Made in Washington stamp on them, hardly the insignia of quality.  The firing of James Comey is purported to be a blunder of world-historical proportions, and one the Democrats and their cowardly Republican enablers hope to gin up as evidence that justice is somehow being obstructed.  How so?  Well, you see, Comey was investigating the crazed conspiracy theory that Trump is a Kremlin agent who is plotting to raise the Russian eagle over the White House, and Comey was canned because he was getting too close to exposing the sinister Putinite conspiracy at the heart of the Trump campaign.

This was followed by the meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the White House, an event that the media characterized as a combination of Munich and the treason of the Rosenbergs.  A Russian photographer was let into the room, while the Americans were kept out, and you’d have thought the Russians were marching on Paris.  And then there was the brouhaha over Trump supposedly giving out classified information to Lavrov—information that had been originally provided to us by the Israelis.  People will die!  This proves Trump is Putin’s puppet!  Our overseas partners will never trust us again!  In reality—as opposed to the bizarro world our media inhabit—this involved letting the Russians know about an ISIS plot to smuggle bombs onto airliners inside laptop computers.  It didn’t matter that the President was motivated by a desire to save lives—after all, these are Russian lives and, therefore, not worth saving.  Indeed, such an effort is “treason” as far as our Russia-crazed media are concerned.

Yes, it all comes back to Russia, with Putin the Great Satan of liberal theology.  Which is a curious reversal from the days of the Cold War, when it was the conservatives who were marketing the myth of Soviet omnipotence, despite the rather obvious weaknesses of what Louis Bromfield presciently described as “ramshackle Russia.”  Back then, the left was telling us we had to be nice to the Russkies, lest we start World War III—and besides, their hearts were in the right place, even if their methods were rather messy.

Now that the Russians have rid themselves of the communist pestilence, the same people—or, rather, their ideological descendants—are openly advocating war.  One Democratic congresswoman recently declared that we shouldn’t talk to the Russians at all, under any circumstances.  Which brings to mind that time the Russians tried to warn us about the Tsarnaev brothers, and we just blew them off.  Every article that appears in the liberal press routinely describes Russia as our “adversary,” without bothering to make any argument—it is simply assumed.

The anti-Russian hysteria that has gripped the liberal precincts of this nation has two sources.  First is ideology.  The Russians rejected socialism, a sin for which they must be punished.  Furthermore, they rejected the plutocratic neoliberalism the West tried to impose on them during the Yeltsin years.  Instead, they embraced a form of Russian nationalism that sought to reconnect with their nation’s history, and religion—Orthodoxy—became prominent once again.  In Western liberal circles, this is equated with “fascism,” and it is now progressive doctrine that Russia is behind the nationalist upsurges that are upending the European Union, that socialist superstate unfettered by either culture or constitutional restraints.

The second is political opportunism.  The anti-Trump crowd really believe they can overthrow the President—impeach and perhaps even jail him—on the strength of bogus charges of “collusion” with the Kremlin.  This is the natural consequence of their status as the self-conscious “elites” whom Trump vowed to defeat: The political class in this country pays lip service to “democracy,” but they don’t really believe in it, and never did.  Their conceit doesn’t allow for it.  What they really believe is that any government that doesn’t recognize their perks and prerogatives is illegitimate and that, as a result, they have a duty to overthrow it.

Just let them try it.  They may even succeed.  But then comes the backlash, the rising of Flyover Country, as the peasants with pitchforks lay siege to the castle: What comes after Trump will make the loquacious real-estate mogul look like Adlai Stevenson.  Trumpism is a mild form of American nationalism: It is inchoate, flexible, and not nearly as dark as it could be.  If the combined efforts of the Democrats, the McCain Republicans, and the Deep State succeed in driving him from office, the anger and frustration of those who put him there won’t disappear—indeed, it will grow in intensity and scale until it explodes.  And that explosion will destroy the political class in this country—and, perhaps, take the federal government down with it.

The NeverTrumpers project their own sins onto their enemies: It is they, and not Trump and his supporters, who are the true enemies of democracy and of the American system.  If they continue to tread the path they are on, the proof of this may be written in blood.

As I was writing this, the Department of Justice announced the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the Russian Question.  The witch hunt is on, the soldiers of the coup are on the move, and the Deep State is savoring its victory.  A dark cloud is hanging over the country, as the elites strike back at their tormentor and plot to take back power.  Will they succeed?  If they do, their triumph will only be temporary—for the backlash will rise before they have time to celebrate.