One Small Voice: It’s GOP that has Trump Derangement Syndrome

by Lynn Mandaville

TDS, or Trump Derangement Syndrome, is a derogatory term used by supporters of our current president Donald Trump to describe anyone, yes, anyone, who opposes or criticizes the president, his policies or his behavior.

The term itself is a means of dismissing, out of hand, even the most widely accepted and documented views toward the president.  And it has been so overused as to have lost its impact as a term of derision.

It is a well-documented fact that Trump is a pathological liar.  He has been called out more times than can be counted for lies such as the size of his inauguration crowd, or whether immigrant families were being separated by agents at the Mexican border, or whether he tried to initiate foreign interference in the 2020 election by soliciting illicit “dirt” on a potential political opponent.

And yet, despite overwhelming proof of those lies, some on the right continue to be dismissive of that criticism as the result of some uncontrollable mental state on the part of the critic.

It has become a laughable defense of a man who has exhibited continual unfitness for the job to which he has been elected.  It has become a toothless device to ward off factual statements about the president by people who want to hold on to their undying support of a man who is falling apart before the very eyes of the nation.

I can understand the desire to defend someone who was thought to be the answer to a government that had lost sight of a huge portion of American citizenry.  In the past I have supported candidates who have disappointed me by their behavior.  I have supported a president who completely lost my respect and allegiance by his personal sexual behavior, his obstruction of justice, and his connections to other questionable, uninvestigated activities.

But I never held on to a blind support of anyone whose own blatant actions showed that my allegiance was horribly misplaced.

That is why I cannot, for the life of me, understand the blind allegiance not only of the electorate who cast their ballots for Trump, but also of the Republican Congress who now defend Trump’s bold disregard for protecting our electoral system or defending the Constitution.

It is not a shame to admit when one has been wrong about something.

It is, in fact, an act of personal liberation, of humility, and of supporting truth.

Admitting being wrong is difficult because it hurts one’s pride.  But sometimes holding on to the wrong belief can be far more damaging than losing face, like when holding onto that wrong encourages continued behavior that puts the security of a nation at risk.

Hurt pride lasts a while, and the length of that hurt can be exacerbated by how a person is treated after admitting his error.  But a person can get over that hurdle of emotional pain, especially if those who opposed his views resist the need to gloat over the admission that he was wrong.

But how does a nation get over one person, or an enormous contingent of people, clinging to a doomed devotion to a man and his delusional claims that he is not what he openly shows us every day that he really is?

We are beginning another awful era wherein an elected president of the United States is suspected of committing crimes and misdemeanors worthy of censure and investigation that may lead to a Senate trial to determine whether he is morally and ethically fit to remain in office.

And there is more than a little irony in this, because the entire tenure of Trump’s time in office so far has been liberally peppered with chaos, questionable behavior (private meetings with autocratic heads of state), failure of retention of high cabinet officials and presidential advisors, nepotism, ethical lapses, and immature behavior in front of the public and the media.

During his time in office he has remained under investigation for possible criminal activity prior to his taking office, and old scandals have followed him that could link him to other illicit behavior.

All in all, there has been a cloud of suspicion hanging over the head of Donald Trump for many decades.

Interesting that his die-hard supporters view that ever-darkening cloud as a derangement syndrome of at least half of all Americans.

As far as the Republican members of Congress are concerned, it’s my opinion that they have collectively placed their personal self-interests above those of the people they were elected to serve.  They fear for their re-elections.  They fear for the very existence of the Republican Party that has splintered more and more since the onset of the Tea Party Movement.  They fear that they will lose the support of Evangelicals who pose a one-issue threat to their remaining in office.  They have lost sight of their own promise to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and they have given preference to protecting and defending the Great Bag of Lies that is Donald Trump.

If anyone suffers from a derangement – an illogical mental proclivity verging on paranoia to cling to a fallacious belief – it is the Republican Congressional body.

It is not, in my not-at-all-humble opinion, those on the left who are willing to unemotionally point out that the emperor is naked, that the president of the United States is a devious, underhanded manipulator of the public trust whose sole interests are his own ego and financial gain, who suffer a derangement.

Until now, the Democrats of the House have been more than willing to let slide many distasteful aspects of this presidency.  And I blame both parties for their shared unwillingness to correct the boorish behavior of this unconventional president.

But now that the president himself has confessed publicly that he engaged in soliciting foreign interference in our democratic electoral process, it is more than high time to elevate criticism to an impeachment proceeding, whether or not it ends in a trial and removal from office.

This president is not above the law.  And if this country wishes to maintain a valid balance of power among its three co-equal branches of government, it is time to put the brakes on a presidency out of control.

Like an incorrigible child allowed far too much leeway for far too long, it will be all but impossible, anyway, to reign in the man-child Trump.  He will twist and distort any outcome of this process we share as a nation.  He will always portray himself as the victim, and his detractors as the villains conspiring to take him down.

A sniveling bully to the end.

Trump Derangement Syndrome is a tired, stale, trite, and empty barb to sling at those who criticize the president.

Trump himself has brought on the critiques through his erratic, bombastic and pathologically lying persona.  I guess it’s understandable that his faithful supporters feel the need to resort to such a vague, hyperbolic explanation of why others oppose him.

But, really, isn’t it a case of “the truth hurts?”  And when we hurt, we act out?

TDS is nothing more than the conservative right acting out in the face of the inevitable.

Whether the Senate votes to kick him out or welcome him back into the fold as the Prodigal Son, Trump is and will always be exactly what he has shown himself to be.