TRUMP DERANGEMENT PSYCHOSIS

 Trump and the Christian Passion Plays 

After years of attacks, false (and some well founded), prosecutions, alleged crimes, impeachments, indictments and trials, the Democrat Party Trump Persecution Phenomena have begun to take on the appearance of a Christian passion play.  Many Evangelical Christians see Trump persecution as the replaying of the Oberammeregau Passion Play, the ancient German Bavarian village portrayal of Jesus’ Passion and Crucifixion, Death and Resurrection which has been performed by local Obergammergau actors every ten years since 1634.

Evangelicals in particular see Trump hatred as a reminder of Christ’s passion. Jesus was rejected by the establishment, maligned, tortured, and sacrificed, but rose again. The hatred of Trump manifested today by the establishment news media, political, social, entertainment industries seem to many Christians as a parallel of Christ’s passion.    

Trump hatred is palpable, overwhelming, disconcerting, psychotic, hysterical, irrational, nay frightening and obsessive to the point of self-destruction to the sufferer.  Fareed Zacharia recently defined this psychic phenomenon  as “hatred so intense that it impairs people’s judgement” Why do these establishment, well educated folks so fear and despise this one man? Is it fear or simply mental disease.

Trump hatred has been termed a “syndrome”: the Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS).  This term was originally coined by the late journalist Charles Krauthammer, for the “irrational” hatred he perceived directed at former President George W. Bush. The term  was later, resurrected by journalists and transposed to describe the even more intense hatred of Donald Trump. 

Krauthhammer, himself, later used the term, “Trump Derangement Syndrome” defining it as the “inability to distinguish between legitimate policy differences ..and signs of psychic pathology”.  It wasn’t clear from Krauthammer, whether he implied that the “psychic pathology” occurred in the observer or the subject himself. Analysis of Krauthammer  sentence structure suggests he implied, the mental disease resides in the former not the latter.  

I suggest here that TDS is more than a syndrome (a group of symptoms which generally occur together) but, rather, is an actual psychosis, a mental disorder characterized by the disconnection of the sufferer from reality. Thus here, I propose that the TDS be renamed: Trump Derangement Psychosis…a mental disorder which is characterized by the disconnection of the sufferer from reality. 

But what has generated this mental disorder which to the detriment of our political amicable discourse so widely afflicts the public, the media, entertainment industry, and the political classes? 

In 2018, the WSJ published: The Real Reason They Hate  Trump, author, David  Galenter  claimed: “He's the average American in exaggerated form, blunt, simple, willing to fight, mistrustful of intellectuals”.  Galenter also noted that the upcoming 2020 elections were to occur with the Democrats in a bad place…”The economy is booming ..America’s  international position is strong…and that strong position was a result of the fact that  President (Trump) followed Machiavelli’s dictum “Don’t seek to be loved , seek to be feared”.  Thus Trump himself may have inadvertently (or intentionally) generated a good part of the hatred he experiences.

Tump is blunt, he has fractured diction, and usage.  He is not an intellectual, a lawyer, or an academic. He does not speak in formal English.  Like Will Shakespeare (or “Black” English) his vivid and expressive language is not confined by formal spelling or pronunciation or by subject, predicate, adverb, adjective. Trump speaks from the gut. Plumbers, electricians, construction workers, laborers fully understand his message. These working class folk do not have to parse his words and analyze what “he meant” —searching for intention and depth.  They immediately get the “gist” of his meaning, just the way they would from a fellow worker.  For this reason Trump Derangement Psychosis may have much to do with Trump himself, as well as the deeper motives of those who use his fractured diction against him.