Des Moines: Chaos Descends

“You know the thing about chaos–it’s fair.”

DES MOINES, Iowa—Chaos has descended upon Iowa’s capital city hours before the final 2016 GOP presidential primary debate before Iowans head to the caucuses on Monday–which will be moderated by the Fox News Channel.

Because of the network’s antics aimed at GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, Trump has decided to abandon the network’s debate. Every pre-set narrative from the mainstream media has been destructed as Trump dukes it out with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), another anti-establishment force who is set to appear in the debate. And every single one of the establishment-backed GOP presidential candidates, from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) to his former mentor Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to Ohio Gov. John Kasich, can’t get anywhere close to first-place Trump’s or second-place Cruz’s level of support.

Meanwhile, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum—the winners, respectively, of the 2008 and 2012 Iowa caucuses and both thorns in the side of the political establishment—plan to support Trump at his event across town at Drake University. Huckabee’s and Santorum’s move is surely going to infuriate their former employer, the Fox News Channel, as Roger Ailes—the network’s chief executive—scrambles to clot the bleeding Trump has inflicted upon his previously invincible network.

Less than an hour before the undercard debate featuring several of the lower-polling candidates, and less than three hours before Fox’s main stage debate will feature Cruz, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), and the establishment candidates, chaos rules the night as reporters, GOP operatives, and more buzz about only one candidate: Donald Trump.

Trump, who isn’t even going to the debate, is dominating all discussions of it—meaning basically he’s winning with none of the risk brought on by opening himself up to attack.

All this chaos reminds one of a particular monologue from The Joker, played by the late Heath Ledger, in The Dark Knight:

So as the establishment, which has tried over and over again to tip the scales in favor of their candidates—and has especially failed to disclose conflicts of interest and put forward political tricks to trip up conservatives—loses control, the race descends into chaos. And in the chaos, voters find fairness. May the best man win.