Some day you should shock all of us by actually putting nuanced thought into your posts….
Wikipedia traces its roots to “Bush Derangement Syndrome” –
a term first coined by the late conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer back in 2003. The condition, as Krauthammer defined it, was “the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the presidency – nay – the very existence of George W. Bush.”
Added Krauthammer:
“Some clinicians consider this delusion – that Americans can only get their news from one part of the political spectrum – the gravest of all. They report that no matter how many times sufferers in padded cells are presented with flash cards with the symbols ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, PBS, Time, Newsweek, New York Times, Washington Post, L.A. Times – they remain unresponsive, some in a terrifying near-catatonic torpor.”
(If you don’t realize the idea of TDS or BDS is – in no small part – meant in a tongue-in-cheek manner then, well, you may well have it.)
Post Bush and pre-Trump, we were visited with Obama Derangement Syndrome – although the infection was less widespread. In a piece headlined “Obama Derangement Syndrome,”
Vox’s Ezra Klein wrote: “Obama Derangement Syndrome is different [than Bush Derangement Syndrome]. It isn’t so much paranoia about President Obama’s policies as it is paranoia about the man himself — that he is, in some fundamental way, different, foreign, untrustworthy, even traitorous.”
At the heart of ODS was the belief that Obama was not, in fact, an American citizen and therefore was ineligible to even be president. The loudest voice pushing that debunked conspiracy theory? None other than Donald Trump.
Which brings things full-circle – and back to Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Trump allies believe that TDS is worse than ODS or BDS – by a lot. Wrote conservative pundit
Bernie Goldberg on Real Clear Politics in early 2017:
“Before the election, the victims of TDS routinely compared Donald Trump to Hitler. Guess what. They’re still doing it. Articles in respectable publications written by professors at elite universities are warning us to be on guard, that a Trump presidency could imperil democracy-as-we-know-it and may very well spell doom for American civilization.
“On election night, as it became obvious that their worst nightmare was about to come true, some libs fainted. Some vomited. Many more threatened to leave the country, but I’m pretty sure none actually did. As Donald Trump might say in a tweet: so sad!”
The truth is that TDS is just the preferred nomenclature of Trump defenders who view those who oppose him and his policies as nothing more than the blind hatred of those who preach tolerance and free speech. Viewed more broadly, the rise of presidential derangement syndromes is a function of increased polarization – not to mention our national self-sorting – at work in the country today.(and this is the nuance that goes over your head).