The phrase "right-wing extremist" has become part of the national lexicon, yet for some strange reason, we never hear "left-wing extremist" to describe the liberal crazies in Antifa and BAMN, just two examples of what liberal extremism looks like — bloody. Why is that? Why do the media pretend the lunatics on the left don't exist?

Remember back in 1998, when Hillary Clinton went on the Today show and defended Bill to Matt Lauer against accusations of infidelity and impropriety as the result of the efforts of a "vast ring-wing conspiracy" that spawned when Bill first announced his candidacy for president? I sure do. It's been Hillary's go-to excuse for every exposed legal and ethical problem that she and Bill have experienced since they first came to occupy the White House. She was still using that same old tired excuse in 2016, while at the same time having the unmitigated gall to claim that "there was nothing to Benghazi" — except four dead Americans, correct?

But the internet video excuse conspiracy to hide the real reason for the Benghazi attack and the shameful lack of response to send help pales in comparison to the effort to execute a bloodless coup on President Donald Trump. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: this scandal is worse than Watergate by orders of magnitude. People active on the federal payroll conspired to attempt the overthrow of the Trump administration before Trump had even taken office.

The infamous "Steele dossier" was commissioned by a company called Fusion GPS, hired by the Hillary Clinton campaign to dig up dirt on Donald Trump and call it opposition research. Literally, a couple of guys getting drunk in a bar made up a bunch of absurd, salacious nonsense about hookers and golden showers that only a mindless twit would ever believe. Fortunately, the conspirators could count on John McCain to get a copy of this farcical "research" document and pass it along to James Comey at the FBI, who was more than happy to knowingly receive utter garbage in the form of uncorroborated opposition research from a political campaign and then turn around and use it as the foundation to spy on President-Elect Donald Trump.

Folks, it doesn't get any worse than this.

Members of the conspiracy met in FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe's office and worked out the "insurance plan" called Crossfire Hurricane to use as their excuse to surveil Trump Tower in the event Hillary Clinton lost the election. James Comey took advantage of the hectic transition period to immediately target Michael Flynn and even had the chutzpah to brag about it.

Look up the word "despicable" in the dictionary, and you just might find a picture of James Comey wearing a pink pussy hat. That would be apropos. If the concept of equal justice under the law still exists in America, Comey will be wearing an orange jumpsuit in the near future.

James Comey is only one member of the vast left-wing Deep State conspiracy against Donald Trump. Here is only part of this cast of most disreputable characters: James Clapper, John Brennan, Andrew McCabe, Rod Rosenstein, Bruce Ohr, Bill Priestap, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Dana Boente, Kevin Clinesmith, Stefan Halper, Joseph Mifsud, Azra Turk, Susan Rice, Samantha Power, and Barack Obama — just to name a few of the conspirators. The plot was so intricate, and so many actors played a significant role, that it would take an entire book to fully explain all the details of the plot, but here is a brief synopsis: bogus opposition research was converted into "intelligence" and used to justify illegal spying on President Trump. Members of the new administration were fed information and then encouraged to repeat it in order to entrap them with "process" crimes. Documents were deliberately altered in order to completely change their meaning. Exculpatory evidence was withheld. And they did some really bad stuff, too.

If you want to know exactly how bad the Mueller investigation was, just read this article about the unbelievable persecution of K.T. McFarland. The strategy seems relatively clear: harass, intimidate, and bankrupt anyone brave enough to work for Donald Trump. Destroy such people's reputations and throw them in prison. How did a guy with a reputation as an overzealous prosecutor like Andrew Weissmann ever get hired to lead the "Mueller" investigation in the first place? Rod Rosenstein probably knew that Robert Mueller had basically become senile in retirement and would only serve as a figurehead, not an active and engaged special counsel. Rod ought to be sharing a cell with Comey before Trump's next inauguration.

Some conservatives have expressed concerns over recent media reports that General William Barr is not really willing to clean out the Augean stables of his Department of (In)Justice because he has complained about some of Trump's tweets and said they have made it difficult to do his job, but I still have confidence in our brave attorney general. Barr's critics may not have heard this hour-long speech he gave to the Federalist Society last November, but it's well worth the listen. Among many other eloquent and astute observations, Barr said this:

Immediately after President Trump won election, opponents inaugurated what they called "The Resistance," and they rallied around an explicit strategy of using every tool and maneuver to sabotage the functioning of the Executive Branch and his Administration. Now, "resistance" is the language used to describe insurgency against rule imposed by an occupying military power. It obviously connotes that the government is not legitimate. This is a very dangerous, and indeed incendiary notion, to import into the politics of a democratic republic. (applause) What it means is that, instead of viewing themselves as the "loyal opposition," as opposing parties have done in this country for over two hundred years, they essentially see themselves as engaged in a war to cripple, by any means necessary, a duly elected government.

I enjoy Barr's wry sense of humor, exhibited when he joked about being the first attorney general threatened with contempt of Congress within his first 100 days in office, asking Nancy Pelosi if she'd brought her handcuffs to arrest him. Barr explained that he was opposed to President Trump tweeting about Roger Stone's court case because the tweets made it more difficult to intervene in the case without creating the appearance that he was acting in response to the tweets instead of the unfair treatment of Stone by the judicial process. Seems reasonable.

Therefore, I remain hopeful that William Barr will continue to faithfully execute the duties of his job in spite of the fact that Andrew McCabe escaped prosecution for lacking candor, the FBI way of saying he lied — the very same reason Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, and George Papadopoulos got in trouble with the FBI and the Mueller investigation. If John Durham doesn't indict anybody, then we'll have ample reason to be upset. Until we hear otherwise from Durham, we should continue to cautiously keep our faith in the judicial system.

Hillary Clinton's "vast right-wing conspiracy" is nothing but a figment of her imagination. The left-wing conspiracy to overthrow the government led by Donald Trump is very real.

John Leonard writes novels, books, and articles/blogs for American Thinker. You may find him on Facebook or his website at southernprose.com. His books are available here.

Image: Office of Public Affairs via Flickr.