The animus of the Democrats, the MSM, and academia toward president Trump has gone from vicious to insane to just plain creepy.  For example, Fox host Tucker Carlson faced off the other night against former Democrat congressional candidate, MSNBC personality, and impeachment advocate Krystal Ball (yes, that's her real name) here.  The woman's high staccato recitation of Trump's alleged crimes was extremely lucid, well rehearsed, and relentless.  But pressed for proof of these offenses, any sort of proof – eyewitness testimony, recordings, transcripts, a copy of the actual Comey memo – she just flamed in indignation that Tucker wouldn't just accept the word of The New York Times and Washington Post.

Think about that: that there are people out there like this woman, and maybe more and more of them every day, and in Congress, too, who intend to overturn an election and topple the leadership of the most powerful country in the world.  What do they cite as their authority to do so?  Answer: Latter-day newspaper and TV reporting barely on the level of Kelvin MacKenzie's heyday-famous 1986 headline in the British Sun – "Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster."

But while it is possible to chuckle at the manner in which Mr. MacKenzie sells newspapers, indeed always will, because he was and still is a rascal, you can't laugh at these folks.  They're humorless.  They want to hurt people, and they're swarming President Trump like a street gang swinging bicycle chains.  They're so convinced of their own righteousness that they'd shame the Pharisees.  They're so angry about how those citizens out there in cow country – those grimy coal miners, lumbermen, country preachers, small-town businessman, and housewives – those "white trash," in the words of that Yale Dean – ignored what was good for them and elected Trump and a Republican House and Senate that they'd visit smallpox on every American man, woman, and child living between the San Andreas Fault and the Wabash River if they could.

No joke.  It's holy water sprinkling, necklaces of garlic, exorcist time in American politics.

Richard F. Miniter is the acclaimed author of The Things I Want Most, Random House, BDD.  His most recent book,  What Sort Of Parents Should We Be?: A Man's Guide To Raising Exceptional Children is now available here.