He did name drop a ton in The Dead Zone (explaining everything to Johnny after the coma).
I think part of it is that since he's so vocal on social media, it feels more in your face when you read about soul-sucking cannibals... Never Flinch is so political that I don't think it would have been published had the publication date been post September....that said, the book with the soul-sucking monsters lets you know what every character thinks about every political event in the 2020s, and Never Flinch does too...which...he didn't do in the past. It was also more nuanced--a character that voted for the party he doesn't like wasn't necessarily the villain. If The Stand were written now, one type of voter would go to Boulder and the other type would go to Vegas, instead of...how it is. (I hope I kept this vague enough!)
