I think right-wingers learned a lot from the #WarOnChristmas.
In '05, when a couple of #FoxNews personalities started pushing that nonsense, they were universally mocked. But Fox stuck with it and soon it infuriated RWers, who acted out when store clerks wished them a happy holiday, and eventually many normal people came to think it was a thing.
The exact same model gave us "spygate" and the weaponization of the DOJ. People forget that all of that started with Trump claiming that...