Week of 09/16/2019

The Conservative “Derangement Syndrome” Fetish
– by David Matthews 2

Once upon a time, many, many decades ago, I was an actual card-carrying member of the GOP.  Back then they earned their name “Republican Party”.  Back then, I thought I was a conservative.  So I listened to the rhetoric that was just starting to make its way on the AM radio dial.

Back then, there were perceived to be only two sides in politics; liberal and conservative.  But any disagreements with liberals back then were considered philosophical.  A difference between how government should deal with people.  At worst, liberals were seen as “delusional” for having a vision that they believed worked even if it didn’t.  But there was still respect for liberal positions, even when conservatives disagreed with them.

That, however, changed after the 2000 Fiasco.  When the Presidential election had to be decided by the Supreme Court and George W. Bush became president.

It was in 2003 that the late Charles Krauthammer, a conservative columnist and supposed psychologist, that introduced a new pseudo-psychological disorder into the political lexicon.

Enter the “Bush Derangement Syndrome”.

The idea is that the liberals could not accept the reality that Bush Junior won the 2000 Fiasco and that they are mentally unbalanced because of it.  They supposedly refuse to honor the election that Bush Junior was declared the winner of.  They were obsessed with looking for voter irregularities to disqualify Bush Junior.  They supposedly objected to everything that Bush Junior and his GOP-controlled Congress did.  All because they were supposedly “mentally unbalanced” according to the quack fascist.

This, however, is a fraud, manufactured by the arrogant quack fascist to demean and discredit liberals in public discourse.  The  term for this behavior is called “gaslighting”, and it is a common tactic used by narcissists, psychopaths, and sociopaths.

So... funny thing happens.  2008 comes by and a new president – Barack Obama – is elected.

Now you would think that this would be the end of the “Derangement Syndrome”, since this is a liberal (actually centrist) President in office with a liberal-controlled Congress (for the first 2 years anyway).  They are the ones in charge now, so they should be content with everything.

But, no, the “Derangement Syndrome” continues.  Now it’s called the “Obama Derangement Syndrome”.

So you’re probably thinking “if liberals suffered from Bush Derangement Syndrome because Bush was in office, are the conservatives the one suffering from Obama Derangement Syndrome”?

Nope.  Still being used by conservatives to discredit and disqualify the liberals.  Now it’s being used to describe the “idol worship” of Obama and the belief that Obama can do no wrong.  The liberals supposedly do not accept the idea that Obama wasn’t born in America (even though he was) because they supposedly suffer from “Obama Derangement Syndrome”.  They don’t want to accept that the Affordable Care Act will fail because they supposedly suffer from “Obama Derangement Syndrome”.  They don’t want to have hearings over Benghazi because they supposedly suffer from “Obama Derangement Syndrome”.  They blindly accept all of Obama’s policies – even if they are supposedly unconstitutional – because they supposedly suffer from “Obama Derangement Syndrome”.

Funny how it always seems to be a one-way ailment.  Always pronounced by conservatives.  Never on the conservatives.  That’s not how real psychological disorders work.

Oh... but wait, it gets better.

Eight years go by and we have a new President.  An orange-skinned narcissist and self-professed “very stable genius” named Donald Trump.

And, you guessed it... it was not long before the conservatives started pronouncing the liberals – and anyone else that opposed Narcissist Trump – of suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome”.

And, yes, if you question or oppose anything Narcissist Trump says or does, then you too supposedly have this “derangement syndrome” that only exists in the putrid minds of fascists.  If you are reading this article and you’ve nodded your head at anything I’ve said up until now, then, yes, that includes you.

So now we have this made-up psychological disorder by a pompous full-of-crap dead quack fascist that can only be declared by one political faction on anyone that disagrees with said political faction and can never be applied to said political faction.

Let’s get brutally honest here... the conservatives in America are guilty of waging long-term psychological warfare on the American people.  They use the made-up term of a “derangement syndrome” to disqualify any questioning or opposition by gaslighting.  If you question them, if you oppose them, then you’re supposedly psychologically unwell.  There is no more “difference of opinions” with them.  If you are not on their side, if you do not agree with them, then you don’t just have a “difference of opinion” with them, you’re not just “wrong” or on the “wrong side of the argument”.  You are declared mentally unbalanced.

Maybe that’s why Narcissist Trump and the Trump Party are now obsessed with mental health when it comes to mass shootings.  They have spent almost two decades now waging this psychological warfare on the public, putting themselves in this perceived position of absolute authority, so now they can use it to take action against their opponents, just like any authoritarian dictatorship would do.

Of course, I expect the conservatives to scream and whine about some fictional equivalence.  They might manufacture some history to suggest that perhaps the late-Speaker Tip O’Neil wanted to have the whole Ronald Reagan White House committed, or that then-President Bill Clinton wanted then-Speaker Newt Gingrich sent to a funny farm over the government shutdown.  They seem to really like making up persecution fantasies to validate their actions and tactics.

Maybe they will scream “unfair” because I refer to Narcissist Trump as a narcissist while demeaning their use of the made-up “derangement syndrome”.  The difference is that Trump’s narcissism is definable.  There are symptoms and signs that you can point to and verify.  The so-called “derangement syndrome” has none of these things.  There are no verifiable symptoms other than a difference in viewpoints.  It is a con.  A fraud.  And the conservatives damn well know it.

The path the conservatives in America are leading us all down with this tactic is a dangerous one.  If we are not allowed to have a difference of opinion, if having that difference is considered mental instability. then we are living in an authoritarian regime.  This is a path that will truly break America as a nation.  Only conservatives can stop it before that point is reached.  The only question remaining is to ask if they have the will to do it.