Trump Derangement Syndrome is such a debilitating ailment that MSNBC is now giving psychological advice on how its liberal TDS readers can ward off horrible visions. Unfortunately, as you can see in his September 6 MSNBC piece, "How not to have a psychic meltdown when you see new Trump-Biden poll numbers," it is Waldman himself who seems to be in deep need for intensive grief counseling.
Yet part of me looks at those polls and wants to respond not with calm and reason, but with a blood-curdling scream of rage. Or at least with the kind of frustration bordering on despair that usually prompts those questions in the first place.
Be honest, Paul. It is not just a part of you that wants to scream out in rage. They just cannot imagine that all of their ardor to destroy Donald Trump leads to backlash.
How can it possibly be, I keep getting asked, that after everything we’ve been through since 2015, even 5% of Americans, let alone 45%, would consider letting him within a mile of the White House? How is it that half of our fellow citizens can contemplate for an instant giving Trump all that power again?
Did it ever occur to you that they (and you) are firmly ensconced in a liberal bubble protecting you from being subjected to contrary viewpoints? The good news is that a few visits to NewsBusters can help lift that veil of protection.
Anyone who pays close attention to politics by now has a Ph.D. in Trumpology gained over years of watching and considering the man himself, the carnival roadshow of his devoted cultists, and the more casual supporters who keep him atop his party. We all saw this coming. But when you step back for a moment, the whole picture can seem even worse than it was, like a horror movie when the protagonist wakes from her nightmare only to realize she’s still in her nightmare.
In their minds, Trump is like the demonic character Randall Flagg in Stephen King's The Stand. Enjoy living at least another year of liberal Groundhog Day horrors. Each time you wake up it is to relive the same horror over and over and over again. The counseling session concludes with the encouragement that derangement is rational:
As infuriating as it is to admit the electorate may choose another Trump term, the only answer may be to hold on to that truth. Rejecting reality only replicates Republicans’ errors that led to Trump’s rise. Exercise your reason, stay informed, understand what’s happening in all its detail. But at those times when you want to scream in fear and anger, don’t think you’re being foolish or irrational. It just means you can see what’s in front of you.
Just as they don't get what people like about Trump, lefties don't get what people oppose in Joe Biden, like the current state of America is wonderfully free of troubles. Are they really seeing what's right in front of them?
