“To restore ... harmony ... to render us again one people acting as one nation should be the object of every man really a patriot.” —Thomas Jefferson (1801)
The Patriot Post just celebrated our 30th year online, making us the oldest news policy and opinion digest on the Web. I have been on the frontlines of conservative politics since President Ronald Reagan entered office, and our Patriot Post team does an exceptional job of tracking contemporary politics for our readers. That job includes comprehensive coverage of Donald Trump’s two terms in office, rudely and improbably interrupted by the disastrous Biden/Harris charade.
I first mentioned the leftist affliction of “Trump Derangement Syndrome” in 2018, after hearing it from the late great political columnist and commentator Charles Krauthammer. By profession he was a psychiatrist, and his opinions I held, and still hold, in very high esteem, both for his unrivaled intellect and his fearless ability to provide balanced analysis.
Dr. K first used the phrase “Bush Derangement Syndrome” back in 2003 to describe the rising tide of George W. Bush’s unhinged haters. After Trump’s election, he defined Trump Derangement Syndrome as a Trump-induced “general hysteria” among Democrats, saying it produced an “inability to distinguish between legitimate policy differences and signs of psychic pathology.”
That hateful hysteria has increasingly manifested itself, in the years since, as aggression and violence against anyone or anything evocative of Trump, and in its most extreme form has resulted in attempts on Trump’s life.
I first referenced “Deranged Demos” in 2017 after Trump took office. With the benefit of a couple of degrees in psychology, I have variously described this behavior as a mass psychosis, akin to mass hysteria, a social phenomenon of shared severe anxiety resulting from fear and a perceived threat, which manifests in cascading irrational behavior presenting as organic mental disease but not associated with any commensurate factual cause or basis.
However, that column, “Memo to POTUS: Stop Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory,” was about an emerging trend in Trump’s “communication style,” which repeatedly undermined the attention his considerable policy achievements deserved.
I noted: “Trump has an unfortunate and apparently uncontrollable propensity for voicing and posting attacks on others, some even fratricidal against fellow Republicans and even those who have been loyal to his administration. ... If he wants to retain the office in 2020, he must exercise a modicum of self-control.”
I concluded that column by noting: “Trump’s propensity for adolescent insults about his adversaries and trolling Democrats in general amounts to unforced errors, which will become a significant obstacle to his agenda. He not only undermines uniform support across the Republican Party, but his divisiveness also triggers an avalanche of fear and angst among deranged Demos. He repeatedly demonstrates by fomenting disunity that he can be his own worst enemy. That is not a winning strategy. President Trump ... Seriously. Please. Stop.”
Since then, I have written at length about supporting Trump’s policies while occasionally objecting to his compulsively divisive political rhetoric. Trump constantly trolls the Left, creating a chronic state of political division instead of finding common ground, which was the Reagan model. That’s why the Reagan years were less politically divided — Reagan and Democrat House Speaker Tip O’Neill not only talked to each other, but also genuinely liked each other.
Consequently, over the last decade, we have documented the progressively delusional reactions to Trump, which have now reached a zenith of sorts, given the unparalleled political toxicity and division nationwide.
Seasoned political analyst Brit Hume noted rising political division in 2017, saying it was creating a “civility crisis.” In 2021, he observed, “This is as bad as it’s ever gotten except perhaps during the Civil War.” He reiterated this week that, over the course of his entire career, he has never seen such a stark political divide.
And I second that... but with the caveat that the political division is not just because of caustic rhetoric from Trump and Demo Party leaders.
There is another factor accelerating political division. Political analyst Scott Jennings notes the social media echo-chamber effect: “I actually think algorithms right now are a major reason why everybody in America seems to be living in different universes. It’s hard to have a shared national purpose when you don’t have a shared national reality.”
He is spot-on. But the corrosive sludge spewed by political leaders is the catalyst for those algorithms.
At the end of Trump’s first term, in “The Trump Presidency: A One-Term Postmortem,” in addition to noting his considerable domestic and foreign policy achievements, I referenced the key reasons for losing to Biden: the Demos’ unprecedented free-speech suppression strategy and their successful bulk-mail ballot fraud.
But what can’t be discarded as a factor then — and should not be discarded as a factor ahead of the midterm elections in six weeks and the presidential election in 2028 — is Trump’s propensity to be his own worst enemy, and, consequently, that of the Republican Party.
What Team Trump still does not get because Trump refuses to modify his divisive rhetoric is that while his base gets fired up over all things Trump, Trump Derangement Syndrome is so prolific that everything Trump does to motivate his base also motivates those opposing all things Trump — and in greater numbers.
This “action/reaction” question is akin to what national security analysts consider when planning strikes against our adversaries. Do offensive campaigns to kill terrorists result in fewer terrorists... or more terrorists?
Trump’s most devoted supporters may be offended by this column, but Trump’s inability to temper his divisive rhetoric is his Achilles’ heel, and that of his entire base and the Republican Party at large.
And the TDS factor this year has fueled the rise of the most strident leftist movement in almost a century, the Democratic Socialists of America, which has invigorated legions of mostly young and ignorant voters.
For the record, I am not a midterm election doomsayer, though the prospects of retaining the House grow increasingly less likely by the day — if you believe the polls.
But unfortunately, another factor will have a substantial effect on the midterm and 2028 elections.
Beyond Trump’s base, there is a large swath of lifelong conservative voters who are burned out on Trump. Call it Trump Fatigue Syndrome.
I have monitored this broad burnout among Trump supporters, who say they would vote for Trump again, but Trump is not on the ballot. Apathy among some of these voters will factor into House and Senate elections in November.
And despite Republicans’ best efforts to keep him relevant in the midterms with their convention and with his whirlwind campaign tour since, it is not clear he is moving the needle for House and Senate Republicans.
This does not take away from Trump’s successful efforts to Make America Great Again after the debacle he was handed by Joe Biden. The economy is strong, and income is up, poverty is down, and jobs are plentiful. As JD Vance noted this week, “Last month, we hit one million new jobs created under the Trump administration — and unlike the last administration ... 100% of the new job growth over the past 18 months has gone to American citizens for a change.”
Furthermore, though I fully agree with Trump’s decision to destroy Iran’s near-capability to create a nuclear weapon, Trump has failed to make the case that neutralizing the nuclear threat from Iran is worth a temporary spike in fuel prices, the latter being all that most Americans know about the attacks on Iran.
The Art of the Deal guy has not closed the deal with voters.
Is there time to get this right before the midterms?
Probably not for undecided voters who will either abstain or vote Democrat.
The Schumer/Jeffries clown show combined with their Leftmedia collaborators will dominate the messaging ahead of the midterms, and at great peril to the national security of our nation. Stay tuned for Iran to launch an October surprise to help the Democrats.
If Republicans lose ground in the midterms, as history dictates they will, that will be a shameful conclusion to this year when we celebrate our 250th anniversary of American Liberty.
The good news, however, is that there IS time for Trump and Republicans to get the messaging right ahead of the 2028 election.
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Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776
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