After Donald Trump got elected president and Democrats began predicting catastrophic consequences to our government and country, Republicans coined the term Trump Derangement Syndrome, or TDS for short. They see the Democrats’ hysterics as laughable and believe that Trump is just a blustering politician who drives his political opponents crazy with his colorful rhetoric. They argue that while his words may be outlandish, his actions are normal.
Well, that’s delusional. Trump Derangement Syndrome really describes the Republicans who just three years ago would deny they’d ever support the behavior and decisions they defend today. They’re the people who considered themselves defenders of morality and the rule of law. They so believed in the power of democracy that they supported the invasion of countries and toppling of dictators in an effort to impose it. They saw free trade as almost equivalent to the concept of freedom itself. They argued that the federal government should be limited in its power and decried the use of executive orders.
Today, they support a president who believes he’s above the law, resisting Congressional oversight and abusing executive power. They pretend like his sexual misconduct either didn’t happen or is somehow ok. They’ve accepted a trade war with China that’s killing American farmers. They blasted Obama for saying he would meet with dictators without conditions and then looked the other way while Trump courts and gets played by Kim Jung-Un. They’re okay with a president who refuses to disengage from his wide-ranging business interests despite obvious and potentially dangerous conflicts of interest. When Clinton allowed big donors to stay in the Lincoln bedroom, conservatives declared it a national scandal. When foreign governments lease entire floors of Trump properties, Republicans today shrug. And when Trump let’s a business associate and dictator invade another country to massacres our allies, Republicans like Thom Tillis say they’ll defer to his judgment.
The GOP’s capitulation to Trump is not cynical politics. It’s pathological. They’ve let him undermine the core principles that defined conservatism just a few years ago. They deny he’s damaged the office of the presidency and our standing in the world despite irrefutable evidence. They retreat to the comfort of the Fox News green room where they’ve created an alternative reality where anything Trump does is good and any criticism of him is fake news. That’s the real Trump Derangement Syndrome and it won’t end well either for the Republican Party or for our country.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
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