The Nightmare Before Thanksgiving: An American Horror Story

Once upon a time, there was a wondrous land called the United States of America, and in this land, there were marvelous things called ‘elections.’ Elections were the backbone of a process they called ‘democracy,’ in which all involved citizens agreed to certain rules and (usually) played by these rules.

At least, this used to be true. But in 2016 this nation foolishly elected as its president a selfish, hateful man who didn’t like or abide by rules, and when the time came for the next election in 2020, this man — a crude, mean-spirited bully named Trump — lost the election.

Why? Chaos always followed him and the people had tired of him, his terrible policies, and his cruel, oafish ways.

But he decided he and his followers didn’t need to play by the rules, so he disputed the election — endlessly — and tried mightily to overturn it. He even instigated an open revolt against the government, in a last-ditch attempt to cling to power.

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But this nation also had things called ‘courts’ that were part of an overarching ‘justice system,’ and these courts kept rejecting Trump’s quasi-legal efforts to overturn the election. His successor, a long-time public servant named Biden, took over on Jan. 20, 2021, and served as president for 4 years. But amazingly, during this entire period, Trump refused to admit he lost the 2020 election and kept insisting (without evidence) that he ‘really won’ and Biden’s party ‘cheated’ him out of the presidency.

He was (and is) the ultimate sore loser and an outright liar — but he’d always hated losing more than anything, so he hatched a plot to get his revenge. “Ah-ha,” he schemed, “I’ll just run for president again, out of pure spite — and this time I’ll beat the pants off Biden, throw him out of the White House, and take over the U.S. for another four years… or maybe permanently. I WILL have my revenge!”

A major ‘plot twist’ undermines Trump’s plans

But in a bizarre plot twist worthy of the ‘Twilight Zone,’ as the 2024 election season progressed the aged Biden began showing public signs of dementia and infirmity — and the Democratic party soon replaced him with a younger, more energetic female candidate, Kamala Harris.

This was triply infuriating for Trump: they stole his one opportunity for ‘sweet revenge’ against Biden, and simultaneously forced him to run against a colored woman!

Thus, his desire for revenge grew even stronger. Since Trump is a known racist, misogynist, and sexual abuser, this new development was deeply insulting to him — so he vowed to beat her at any cost. If he somehow ‘lost’ — due to Democratic ‘cheating,’ of course — he’d never admit defeat and would fight to retake the presidency any way he could… legal or not.

If he ‘lost,’ the 2024 election aftermath would make the monstrous Jan. 6 insurrection look like a mere practice session (which, in a way, it was).

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But it turned out, he needn’t have worried. Through skillful manipulation of the media, social media, and the American public, Trump and the GOP paved the way for a resounding election victory. He made many devious, hyped-up ‘promises’ he can’t or won’t keep, and tricked many Americans into believing their lives would be ‘far better’ under Trump.

Huge, yuge mistake.

A prelude to the horrors to come

You see, all the earlier atrocities Trump had unleashed were merely a preamble — a small taste of the horrors to come. Due to his strong showing in the 2024 election, Trump won both the popular vote and the decisive ‘second vote’ in the arcane ‘Electoral College.’ This double victory, along with winning total GOP control of every branch of government, gave him a potent popular ‘mandate’ to enact his agenda — and enact it he would.

Trump would finally have his ‘sweet revenge’ on Biden, Harris, and the entire United States.

Immediately after winning the election, Trump, his henchmen, and his advisors started gathering and plotting their next moves. The full-scale ‘Nightmare Before Thanksgiving’ was about to begin. (Thanksgiving was a traditional holiday held late in November; it was a festive time of large family gatherings. Due to Trump’s malign influence, though, the ‘festive’ aspect collapsed… and soon Thanksgiving would be no more.)

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As president-elect, Trump was empowered to announce a long list of choices for his Cabinet, agency heads, and diplomatic positions, and announce he did — to widespread shock, disbelief, and fear.

All his choices had two things in common: they had NO experience with the type of position he was recommending them for, and they were fiercely loyal to him and his vengeful agenda. They were a bunch of ignorant, unprepared clowns — but they were also hateful, dangerous sycophants.

Even worse, they were eager to help him expand his power and wreak even more havoc on the United States. Truly, it was a cavalcade of idiocy and malevolent absurdity, and it gave — very deliberately — a disguised, gleeful ‘middle finger’ salute to the United States. (The ‘middle finger’ salute is this culture’s most potent and inflammatory insult.)

Welcome to ‘The Nightmare Before Thanksgiving’

The Trumpian ‘Nightmare Before Thanksgiving’ is in full swing now. And Trump is gleefully trotting out one horrible candidate after another, each seemingly vying to outdo the idiocy and dangers of the previous choices.

Most dangerously — flipping a contemptuous middle finger at America’s vaunted ‘rule of law’ — Trump picked Matt Gaetz as his Attorney General. Gaetz is a suspected child predator, sexual abuser, and illicit drug user — but Trump likes him because he’s a MAGA (Make America Great Again) bulldog and supports his vendetta against all his perceived ‘enemies.’ Trump wants a pliant, aggressive Department of Justice that will do his bidding — and Gaetz is the perfect man for the job. The astonished uproar on Capitol Hill is loud and continuing.
As head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Trump picked Lee Zeldin, a pro-business Trump loyalist. Zeldin is eager to roll back environmental rules and protections and help Trump achieve his goal of American ‘energy dominance’ — and the environment is last on his list of priorities. While a New York congressman, Zeldin got the League of Conservation Voters’ worst score (in 2020) on environmental issues, out of the entire New York delegation.
Trump picked Pete Hegseth, a former serviceman and anchor on the Fox ‘News’ weekend show ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’, as the new Secretary of Defense. Whaaat!? Hegseth has NO experience leading our military, and his main qualification seems to be… you guessed it, he’s a Trump loyalist who supports firing or hamstringing many top military leaders and generals and wants to forbid women from active military duty. And late this past week, allegations surfaced of sexual abuse and harassment. What a stand-up guy!
As promised, Trump chose Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to oversee the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Talk about the fox guarding the henhouse! RFK, Jr. is an infamous vaccine skeptic — despite vaccines having saved millions of lives over the past century — and is also fond of creepy conspiracy theories (the entire Kennedy family has disowned him). If RFK, Jr. is confirmed by the Senate — or if Trump rams through his appointment — the health and health insurance of most Americans may be severely impacted. Trump promises he’ll let RFK, Jr. ‘go wild’ with our health care systems.
And… the hits (on sanity and common sense) keep coming. On Nov. 16, Trump announced his pick to run the Department of Energy — and it’s Chris Wright, the CEO of Denver-based fracking company Liberty Energy! If this man gets confirmed, the U.S. can say goodbye to green energy initiatives and incentives, and all we’ll hear is “Drill, baby, drill”!

Many more nightmares await active deployment

These five men are the absolute worst candidates Trump has chosen — but they’re still only the tip of the iceberg. Every… single… candidate — all 15+ of them, so far — is a terrible and totally unqualified choice (with the possible exception of Sen. Rubio as Secretary of State).

As mentioned, their overriding and only qualifications seem to be blind loyalty to Trump and a fervent desire to advance his agenda. Loyalty to our Constitution and our nation’s laws come in a distant second — IF they even enter the picture! These candidates’ shared mission seems to be the destruction of liberal democracy and liberal thought itself.

So, here we are in mid-November, and Trump will be inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2025 — about two months from now. And the nightmare is already in full swing, and accelerating. By the time Trump is inaugurated, much of his desired ‘dream team’ (make that ‘nightmare team’) will be in place, ready to jump into action and start eviscerating our nation and our government.

The background timeline and plans, including the infamous ‘Project 2025’ playbook, are all in place, and Trump is poised to quickly become a tyrant and dictator in actual deed, if not in name.

The United States is facing a true nightmare scenario, and the current ‘Nightmare Before Thanksgiving’ is merely Act I of a more prolonged and devastating American Nightmare.

It’s just a foretaste of horrific, insane, and destructive things to come.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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