According to editorial cartoonist Herb Block, better known as Herblock, the stupidest tea party was when, in October 1999, presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan switched from the Republican Party to the Reform Party, creating divisiveness within the emerging third party as his political platform differed markedly from that of founder Ross Perot. In the meantime, real estate magnate Donald Trump had formally established his Reform Party candidacy. Trump was favored as the “Stop Buchanan” candidate, but in February 2000, he withdrew from the race. In August 2000, Patrick Buchanan accepted the presidential nomination from one wing of a decidedly split Reform Party. For Herb Block, the situation evoked one of Sir John Tenniel’s famous illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”

That third panel is from 1984's What If #44, which echos so much today
The premise was "What If Captain America were revived today?" ("today" being 1984).

It has two different Caps being revived: First, the 1950's replacement Cap, who's a McCarthyite Bircher-in-all-but-name, who'd been created to get back that ol' WW2-Cap "living symbol of patriotism" spirit during the crusade against the commies. At some point in the '50s he became inconvenient and was put in some sort of suspended animation. Some time in the 70s he was released by a "patriotic citizen", who was a janitor at the secret facility where he was being kept on ice. Once again posing as WW2 Cap, he becomes a magnet for RW politicians and other zealots.

Including one who wants to put severe restrictions on immigrants, get tough with unruly minorities, and reinvigorate "the real America". With fake-Cap's backing he wins in a landslide. Fake-Cap endorses militias, the "Sentinels of Liberty", to confront protesters. At one such protest, fake-Cap's higher-level backers have a sniper shoot him so it can be blamed on the protesters and justify a crackdown, Reichstag-Fire-style.

Fake-Cap survived (believing it was the protesters who shot him), and went on to help his backers consolidate power under -- I kid you not -- the America First Party. The Sentinels of Liberty are elevated to practically an internal occupation army. They build walls to seal off minorities from the rest of the country, most notable the Harlem Wall. An Emergency Information Freedoms Act is passed to restrict the press. To maintain the appearance of following the 1st Amendment, some dissent (within limits) is allowed. One such dissident is the New York Daily Bugle's cantankerous and idiosyncratic editor/publisher, J. Jonah Jameson.

This is the environment in which WW2 Cap, Steve Rogers, is found in the ice and revived by a submarine crew (submarine duty being the main "See? We're not discriminating. We accept the good ones." job for minorities and Jews in the Navy).

The old-timer sub skipper is able to identify this Cap as the real one, and when they get back to port he sneaks Cap to the Resistance, led by Jameson, Nick Fury, Sam Wilson (who's not The Falcon here, but instead leads "the Black Cadres," intentionally modeled after the Black Panther Party), and Spider-Man.

I give the above rundown to set the stage for the couple of pages below. Clipping panels here and there don't do them justice.

The Resistance strikes back at the America First Party's first national convention in Madison Square Garden. With all the restrictions, its leader is a veritable shoe-in to win the election, and once he's in place he'll consolidate further and make himself the king of America.

First, however, the Resistance upstages the festivities...



Over the next several pages Cap & fake-Cap fight, and other Resistance members take out the Sentinels in the room and keep the TV cameras running. Being the real deal, Cap beats the fake. The crowd reacts, and Cap says his piece.





End scene.

The resolution is wildly simplistic, sure, but they had to wrap it up on a high note.

Enough cowardice: Democrats must forge ahead, without caring what the Trumpers say
Trump's delusional supporters will rage and scream no matter what. Democrats should quit trying to make peace

By Bob Cesca
November 24, 2020 1:00PM (UTC)

Even after the landslide defeat of Donald Trump, Republicans across the board continue to be terrified by Trump's disciples. Fear of the Red Hats has always been one of the primary reasons why the rest of Trump's party has refused to speak out against his ongoing horror show. It's not the only reason, but it's one of the more potent ones.
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While it's pathetic, infuriating and completely unpatriotic, I at least understand why they're doing it. What I don't understand is why the Normals are afraid of Trump's Red Hats, too.
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The tragic reality of the Biden years will be this: The Red Hats are going to scream about literally everything anyway. They already are. History has taught us that appeasement only makes the aggressor more aggressive, and trying to unilaterally play nice will only end in unilateral pantsing. In their deluded, brainwashed minds, Biden stole the election from Trump, while professional stooges like Charlie Kirk and Breitbart are already hyping up their fanboys about inevitable "persecutions" that will follow. Ivanka Trump, meanwhile, has expressed outrage over the New York attorney general's comprehensive investigation into Trump's alleged financial crimes. Fox News and the other pro-Trump propaganda outlets will link Biden to all of it, whether Biden wants to be linked or not.
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Americans tend to respond to strong, unflinching leadership, and tend to condemn weakness and half-measures. So whether it's the incoming attorney general or a congressional committee or a state and local probe, if the evidence leads to indictments, Democrats should just own it and ignore the shrieking. The Lincoln Project's Rick Wilson once said, "[Mitch McConnell] doesn't care about screaming." The Democrats on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue would do well to employ the same strategy. Hold fast, power through and stop caring about the screaming.
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