The irrational hatred of everything about President Trump has spread throughout the left-wing’s hermetically sealed media sphere like a plague. I have tried to explain that for many, President Trump’s pugnacious personality is trumped (pun intended) by his appointments, policies and successes. I even did a column entitled “Stop making me defend Trump,” but they either did not read it or did not heed it.
Thoughtful explanations seem to fall on deaf ears when it comes to the left-wing Democrats and their hyperventilating pals in the east coast elitist press – those folks encapsulated in that New York City/Washington bubble. So, let me put it in simpler terms that they may better comprehend. WE LIKE YOU AND YOUR POLICIES A LOT LESS!
So, there it ‘tis.
On Election Day 2016, America had a choice between the eccentricities and bellicosity of Donald Trump — and his tough policies on fair trade and legal immigration and jobs, jobs, jobs – or the continuation of the flawed and failed policies of the left – which we the people have been rejecting since 2010. Actually, we have been rejecting big government, high tax socialism since 1776. And of course, all the things that half of America did not like or want were manifest (or is it personifest?) in Hillary Clinton.
That dynamic has not changed. As long as Democrats embrace the boilerplate socialist policies of a powerful, oppressive and unaccountable central government, none of Trump’s antics are going to have us join the ranks of the legendary lemmings. We are not about to jump off the cliff of personal freedom and into the abyss of oppressive subservience. (Incidentally, lemming do not really jump off cliffs, but you get the point).
For those on the left who might read this column, have retained a modicum of objectivity or have not come down with Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), I will offer a more detailed explanation.
TDS appears to be a degenerating malady. It produces an instant and blinding emotional hatred – ergo a total loss of rationality and objectivity. It apparently spread to pandemic levels on Election Day 2016. The shock to the liberal body politic was too much to bear. Democrats and the traditionally liberal media seem to be the most vulnerable, although some Republicans and erstwhile conservatives have obviously been infected with TDS.
Over time the victims tend to see the real world more and more from an Alice in Wonderland perspective. They become increasingly irritated and irrational as they try to understand why so many people do not see the hallucinogenic political world that arises in their impaired minds. It appears that this disorienting effect leads them to move further and further to the unpopular political left – where objectivity has been a historical weakness and the pursuit of power has characteristically trumped principles of personal freedom.
As STD has advanced in severity, the left has expanded their disgust for Trump to an intellectually vapid disdain for the millions of Americans who refuse to join in their vigilante-like pile on. Three words captured and defined the attitude of the arrogant, elitist and now deranged political left toward any person not recruitable into their malignant rule-or-ruin political strategy — “basket of deplorables.”
While many, even on the left, criticized Hillary Clinton’s characterization of half of the American people, it has been clear that the left fully embraces the concept. The left’s condemnation spread from those working in the Trump administration to the Republicans in Congress — and by extension to all Republicans in the population. Then it was to anyone with a traditional conservative philosophy.
Every day, Democrats and left-wing personalities stereotype their adversaries as either sexists, homophobes, misogynists, racists, heartless deviants or all the above. The comparison to Nazis is not a bridge too far for these folks. They attack from the halls of government, from the elitist newsrooms, from the captured classrooms and from the silver screens of Hollywood like a band of political zombies recently released from the graves of socialism.
Like the fictional zombies of moviedom, the hardcore extreme left – where TDS is beyond cure – takes to the streets to terrorize, disrupt, destroy and even kill in the hope of gaining by violence what they cannot by persuasion. Despite their criticism of Trump’s language, their own resort to the most extreme and vile vulgarisms far exceeds the President’s most outrageous appellations.
The TDS afflicted can be seen assaulting Trump staffers and supporters in the public commons based on who they are or for simply wearing a “Make America Great Again” baseball cap. Rather than condemning such bad behavior, they encourage it. California Congresswoman Maxine Wates, with her inciting such hostile actions, is the poster child of TDS.
Those afflicted with TDS cannot understand the rational world and those who do not share their twisted views. As a result, they attempt to shame, cajole and even threaten calamity for those who refrain from accepting their biased and irrational vision of reality. Their world is divided between them and those they deem to be hateworthy enemies. There is no valid alternative opinion in their compromised minds.
As their efforts fail, they become more extreme in their claims and more shrill in their rhetoric. Left-wing cable news folks now literally yell into the camera. Their frustration and exasperation are palpable. Democrat senators, such as Richard Blumenthal, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, have surrendered decorum for rabble-rousing – elevating the smallest criticism of Trump and all who defend him into hyper-hyperbolic accusations of treason.
On a recent episode of The View, Whoopi Goldberg succumbed to TDS with an over-the-top emotional on-air outburst at their guest celebrity, Judge Jeanine, of FOX News. Goldberg was so overwrought that in the hallway after the show that she let out a Tourette-type series of f-yous followed by a repetitious command to “get the f*^k out of this studio.” A classy lassie Goldberg ain’t.
One can see the derangement produced by TDS in how the left had predicted a stock market crash if Trump was elected. They called for his impeachment even before his Inauguration. They were brutally attacking Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court before the President even announced his candidate. They not only predict the outcomes of upcoming events – the meetings with Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin as two examples – but report the same opinions after the meetings, regardless of the actual outcomes.
Such twisted logic can be found in the news media every day. Recently NBC reporter Ken Dilanian was interviewed on MSNBC. He reported that the Department of Justice (DOJ) had just announced a comprehensive plan to protect the integrity of the election process. Dilanian claimed that the DOJ had to “jump in” because the Trump administration was doing nothing to protect our elections. Did you catch that? Someone should inform Dilanian that the DOJ is part of the Trump administration. Is this stupidity, bias or TDS?
If you compare TDS-infected news to the weather, it is like being told that we are being ravaged by terrible storms, hurricanes, tornadoes and tsunamis all at the same time. But when you look out the window, the world is as bright and sunny as ever.
Rather than be angry or bitter, we unafflicted should express pity for our fellow (and gal) Americans on the extreme #NeverTrump left. TDS takes its greatest toll on the victims who live in that unhappy, depressing and ugly world conjured up by their own internal demons. Oh sure! For many the incessant negative comments and false narratives are simply cynical political strategy – and not a good strategy, to be sure. But many of those poor souls on the extreme left, who think MSNBC is a real news outfit, actually live in that dank and fearsome fantasy land of their imagination – where Trump is the scary ogre and people like me are consigned to that basket of deplorables.
What is going to become of these poor souls if the Democrats do not take over control of the United States House of Representatives and Republicans actually increase their numbers in the Senate – both of which are distinct possibilities?