Conservative lashes out at Trump for turning his colleagues into 'unrecognizable ... MAGA-zombies'

In a horror-themed column for the Daily Beast on Halloween, conservative Matt Lewis compared the Donald Trump years to both a zombie film and "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers" to describe the effect the former president has had on formerly rock-ribbed conservatives.

Lewis who became a Never Trumper not long after the New York businessman was elected in 2016, began by claiming he has "... struggled to come up with the perfect analogy to explain how otherwise normal conservatives turned into Donald Trump apologists," and used an observation made by another conservative about what it is like to deal with former colleagues when it comes to the now-former president.

"A few years ago, conservative writer Jonah Goldberg made this very observation. Joking about his then-colleagues at National Review, Goldberg wrote, 'I live in constant fear that I will run into Kevin Williamson, Charlie Cooke, or Rich Lowry and they will start telling me that Donald Trump is a serious person because he's tapping into this or he's willing to say that. I imagine my dog suddenly barking at them uncontrollably,'" Lewis recalled.

The conservative columnist admitted he is dealing with the same dread.

"I had that same feeling again this week, when story after story showed how some of the most respected conservative individuals, institutions, and outlets have been infected or replaced by alien duplicates," he wrote. "In reality, this didn't happen overnight. But it's impossible to escape the nightmarish conclusion that the slow-motion takeover of the GOP is now complete."

Noting the GOP's purging of Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) because he dared to take on the former president -- leading to him deciding to now not seek re-election in 2022 -- Lewis lamented what has become of the conservative movement he has belonged to for years.

Continuing with his horror movie theme, he wrote: "Now, a lot of people will tell you that slasher films present the scarier metaphor. I disagree. In Friday The 13th, Jason stalks and kills young people at Camp Crystal Lake (think Kinzinger, who, on Friday, announced he would not seek re-election). While getting (politically) axed may be scary, there's something MUCH creepier about watching a friend's humanity slowly drain away as they morph little-by-little into a MAGA-zombie or alien clone or 'pod people' (or whatever). And that's what has happened to me."

"The fact that this transformation is still happening after the horror icon (in this case, Trump) was ostensibly defeated only serves to reinforce the genre's trope about the villain reanimating or being resurrected," he added.

Turning back to "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers," he admitted, "In the meantime, I keep watching my former allies become unrecognizable. At some point, there are no normal human beings left, and you find yourself at an abandoned mine screaming at passing motorists: 'They're here already! You're next! You're next!'"

You can read the whole piece here -- subscription required.