Phew

Millions of us feel re-enfranchised this morning. And almost as many know for an absolute certainty that the election was stolen by Obama--who is not only neither white nor Christian but wasn't even born in the US.

Going forward, the word "Dominion" will have the same emotional resonance that "Yalta" did when I was growing up--or that "stab in the back" did for a certain generation of Germans.

Trump's sulkiness makes me doubt he has the energy or the will to sustain any kind of movement going forward, and it's hard for me to imagine Biden becoming the kind of lightning rod that Obama did. But who knows? When Trump came down that golden elevator more than five years ago, I never dreamed what would follow. What I do know is that mass media, especially social media, and conspiracism are an even more volatile mix than anyone--even me, who had spent the last decade reading and writing about conspiracism, and covering extreme right wing groups close up--could have imagined. In the coming years, there could be as many Q believers in state legislatures and Congress as there were anti-Masons in the 1830s. Whether it's Trump himself, his son, or someone smarter and more capable, another demagogue will soon arise to spread another cognitive contagion--and no amount of warning labels can stop it.

What can? The only thing I can think of is a knowledge of history--including that which has yet to be written.