It’s kicking around here somewhere. I haven’t laid hands on it in over 20 years. “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds,” by Charles MacKay. The title alone springs so forthrightly to mind. First published in 1841, it’s calling out for a new chapter, a chapter uniquely American -- the fomented delusion that Trump won the election. This delusion is widespread and the associated madness it has created is dangerous and ongoing.

Part of the (current) Great American Delusion is that the 2020 presidential election was a fraud, that it was won by Trump, that Biden lost, that Trump “won by millions.” Also known as The Big Lie, this popular delusion was orchestrated by Trump, who months before the election laid down the gasoline theories of voter ballot stuffing. Repetition of the lies of voter fraud were so frequently blasted across the Trump world, before and after, that they banged around inside peoples’ heads like cow bells. The reverberations of these cow bells are still ringing across the country in bone-encased pockets of gray matter.

The fact that state legislatures (most of them Republican controlled) sent one set of electoral votes (not two or three competing slates) to the Congress to be counted does not register within this delusion. The fact that 59 out of the 60 lawsuits brought by Trumps’ self-described “elite strike force team” (sounding more like they were striking up a match under a bowl of crack) were thrown out, case by case, including the one in the conservative Supreme Court. This fact is also not accepted as determinative by the delusional mob. The fact that the Secretaries of States of all 50 states confirmed the numbers quantifying Biden’s Electoral College vote count is viewed as just part of the “deep state’s” latest attempt to steal power from the “people,” -- to steal the election from Trump.

“Stop the Steal” was the rallying cry of the protest in Washington DC. Trump attended. Giuliani attended. “Let’s have trial by Combat!” Giuliani smilingly yelled after losing so many trials by flawed lawyerly argument. Former Nixon prosecutors are claiming there is probably cause to claim “proximate cause” the ensuing riot was in part inspired by these speeches and speakers. That means the leaders of this rally, including the president, should be charged with inciting a riot and insurrection. The delusional protestors were turned into a madding crowd.

But it wasn’t just the spur of the moment. The ransacking of the Capitol was planned. The Proud boys, the Q-Anon, the white supremacists, the Confederate flag carriers, the bomb makers, the off-duty cops with flex-strips (handcuffs for the Congressmen), the clownish head-dressed publicity freaks, the great sea of manhood and sadly, womanhood, sloshing through the Capital Building like pig swill dumped into a barnyard trough -- this insurrection was orchestrated. The organizational elite used the madness of the crowd as cover for the insurrection, as a spear point to gain access into the Capitol Building, where the insurrection was being aided and abetted by Senators Cruz, and Hawley, and numerous House Representatives trying to overthrow the election by denying the legitimacy of the Electoral College count.

The madness crowd stole the lectern of the Speaker, not the election; they threatened to hang the Vice President because the President now turned on his longtime admirer and blamed him, lowly Pence, for not saving the election by swinging the count for Trump and the Trump Dynasty; they killed a police officer by bashing in his head; they said they would have shot Nancy Pelosi in the head if they had only found her.

This week has been astonishing. The more I read and see about the attack on the Capitol, the more disturbing it is. Yes, I have friends who do not get it. The BIG LIE has created a BIG TRUMP ARMY. I am sad and angry when I hear my friends talking as if this was just a walk in the park. There was a planned conspiracy on the part of Trump, Hawley, and Cruz to overturn the election results, and with them, a band of self-proclaimed “patriots” tried to take elected officials hostage. We forget, just a few days prior, the President was threatening the Secretary of State of Georgia to find 11,780 votes, one more than he needs, or he could be considered a criminal.

There are different levels of knowledge and involvement in this insurrection, but on Kristallnacht the local baker was still the one smashing the cobbler Jew’s window. The Nazis burned down their own Parliament.

I think it is instructive to break the event down. There were people at the top equipped for insurrection, and pawns at the bottom duped into thinking they were being patriotic. There were people whose intent it was to “stop the steal” by stealing the election themselves. Busloads of our own neighbors, encouraged by local Republican politicians, followed this delusional rabblerousing to the capitol where they had no idea what was planned for them — to be added to the crowd as willing support actors on a stage of the destruction of our democratic republic.

It’s not over. A historian points out it took ten years for Hitler to finally take control of Germany following his beer hall putsch. The next few days are very dangerous for our democracy, but let’s remember, the fascists are playing for the long haul. They are playing for keeps.