In a Washington Post column entitled The Delusional Dean, published December 5th, 2003, political pundit and erstwhile psychiatrist Charles Krauthammer coined the term “Bush Derangement Syndrome,” a tongue in cheek psychiatric diagnosis he defined thusly:
Bush Derangement Syndrome: the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the presidency – nay – the very existence of George W. Bush.
Having lived through the era, it neatly described a large contingent of the media and political class, whatever one may have thought of Bush. Given the spasmodically histrionic reactions to the policies, the presidency – nay – the very existence of Donald J. Trump, it should come as little surprise the term was resurrected as Trump Derangement Syndrome. From the moment he descended from a gaudy, golden escalator 11 years ago next month, Trump has captivated the media and political class – both his detractors and supporters alike – as no other president has within my lifetime, if not in history (Obama being the closest contender).
Which brings me to the titular topic. I am so goddamn weary of our entire politics, public discourse, and popular culture revolving around Donald Trump. 11 years in and I feel as if I’ve been reliving day 1 of the 2016 campaign like Bill Murray’s Phil Connors in Groundhog Day. Lacking Mr. Krauthammer’s aptitude for word and pen, if I were groping for a definition of Trump Fatigue Syndrome, it would be something along the lines of: “An acute malaise caused by total exhaustion in reaction to daily references to Donald J. Trump in every form of news, opinion, and popular media since June 16th, 2015.”
I’ll confess that even pre-politics, I’ve simply never found Donald Trump all that entertaining. It’s not that I had a particularly strong objection to the man himself, I simply wasn’t interested in his TV shows and found his carefully curated, ostentatious, larger-than-life public persona silly. When he announced his candidacy, I suspected it was a public relations grab. When it became obvious he was a serious candidate, I was intrigued by the possibility of a political outsider having a realistic chance for the first time since Ross Perot. When he won, I knew he would never be a reflection of my political preferences, but was cautiously optimistic that he may shake things up in D.C. And then, something completely expected happened. Hampered by the very political system he campaigned on reforming and having filled his cabinet with old guard GOP apparatchiks, his agenda was mostly stymied, and he accomplished little that any generic Republican or Clinton-era Democrat wouldn’t have in the same office.
And that’s where the fatigue sets in. Despite the breathless takes from his detractors and supporters alike at his every utterance and emanation, there just really isn’t anything particularly interesting about Trump from a policy standpoint. Good or bad, he hasn’t proposed or enacted a single policy, nor signed a single piece of legislation, that’s outside the scope of previous executives or acceptable public discourse. Under his leadership, the deficit and debt have increased by about the average of modern presidents. He’s nibbled at regulations and tax rates like every Republican since Reagan, while pursuing a protectionist, pro-union industrial policy reminiscent of the pre-Clinton Democratic party. If this is the stuff that gets people in the mood for political assassinations, then I’m certain nukes would be flying on my first day in office if I were ever elected.
Failing to have a strong reaction one way or the other to Trump will, somewhat ironically, earn a charge of Trump Derangement Syndrome from his supporters, or Trump cultism from his detractors. The standard explanation for this phenomenon is the increasing polarization of politics, and while that’s undeniably happening, I think it’s a facile and insufficient one. Anecdotally, it’s been my experience that when discussing policy in isolation, you will have a very different result than discussing the very same policy once Trump is involved one way or the other. This could range from historically protectionist union organizers discovering the perils of tariffs, to Trump’s non-interventionist wing defending military action in Venezuela and Iran. Political hypocrisy is nothing new, of course, and you could argue the same thing happened with Obama’s anti-war wing coming around to applaud the intervention in Libya, for instance. But the intensity of the fervor and rapidity of the shift in policy support seems magnified. Nobody shot at Joe Biden or Barack Obama, nor assassinated left wing media figures, in the times punctuating Trump’s two terms. Being neither offended by, nor enamored of, Trump’s brash style, perhaps I simply find him easier to ignore than some others do. I’m clearly the outlier.
The unfortunate TFS sufferer will seek in vain for a respite in the mindless indulgences of pop culture. Ham-fisted references to Trump, or poorly concealed didactic moral allegories for he and his policies, abound nearly inescapably in all forms of popular media. Woe to you who indulge in social media. I don’t know how you can stand it. Where you fall on the pro/anti Trump spectrum may even affect your ability to get laid.
It would be nice to think we only had 2 and a half years left on this ride – that the Trump obsession would end with his final term in office. But if the Biden intermission taught us anything, it’s that Trump will continue to command the media and the public’s attention for as long as he lives. The symbiosis is just too powerful. At 79 years of age, nature will eventually, mercifully, impose its own limitations. I genuinely wonder what will happen then. So many people have invested so much of their lives and self-identity into Trump in one way or another, it’s hard to imagine the trance breaking that easily.
It’s all so tiresome.
It’s all so tiresome.
Yes
Yeah, I never gave him two seconds thought before he ran for president. Never watched that TV show he did, for example.
I suspect the histrionics was ginned up by the hive mind specifically because they were afraid he would upset the grift they have been running for decades – which obviously did not happen in round 1 and is only slightly happening now in round 2.
“But the intensity of the fervor and rapidity of the shift in policy support seems magnified. Nobody shot at Joe Biden or Barack Obama, nor assassinated left wing media figures, in the times punctuating Trump’s two terms.”
Parsimony? Those assured of the continuation of their power got it taken away. ‘Snatched.’ Stolen! The petulant children in ex-power are terrified of this. Their current status. Future status. Their legacy. Rug gets pulled under ya? Flail and grab whatever you can.
Blue Useful Idiots are fighting the IPCC’s admission the global warming(!) shit was all bullshit, and no one cares. Why? Far too much of themselves is *already invested* in it. Self-flagellation w their ‘carbon footprint’ sins.
Same with anti-Trump. To even have an open mind? Political, social, cultural heresy. It’s all fucking religious ‘thinking,’ w ‘experts’ as the new clergy.
Easiest example with me? Try converting me *away* from the Cubs. I wouldn’t (willingly) convert, and any forced conversion would be saddled with inner spite and malice. That’s how people are with their religious leaders. Bringers of Light, they are. (At least that one! *swoooooon!*) /ev pukes
Bingo. This all came to a head during a discussion with a relatively non-political acquaintance of mine whose entire politics, such as they are, amount to opposing Trump on any given issue. I’m able to avoid getting mired in the partisan politics since I’m not neatly within the D or R camps, but Jesus fuck does it get old. “He’s literally a convicted felon!” Yeah, and maybe I’m a Chinese jet pilot…
They prosecuted him to get a soundbite, which their sheeple predictably bleat. Same logic as the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw2BVI9OhC4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0krkHRBaVI
+3 felonies a day
My oldest best friend, circa 2020, sat down next to me and quietly told me Trump was going to jail. I said “I don’t think so”. He rattled off a bunch of worn out declarations and accusations that the Demos had been using, as if they were punishable facts.
Last year when he and his wife visited they quoted Trump saying things that had already been discarded, as if they were somehow relevant.
My distaste is the BS and overspending, using the military without congressional approval and his own party is afraid to challenge him.
Don’t you remember when those guys were alleged to have plotted to shoot Obama?
Barack Obama assassination plot in Denver
I’m sure the FBI wasnt involved with that at all.
“Although their suspected white supremacist affiliations led federal authorities to investigate possible ties to a larger group, authorities later downplayed the trio as drug addicts who had little chance of carrying out the plot. The three men were charged with drug and weapons charges, but did not face federal charges of threatening a presidential candidate.”
It was so tiresome to watch/hear him boast of the great things the tariffs were going to do. Adam Smith other economists were twisting in their graves. Yet Trump kept pursuing tariffs as a punishment of other countries. Navarro has mostly gone away but still pops up on occasion wanting more tariffs. Trump’s economic ignorance carried over to his love of them versus us in his foreign policy.
So true. I completely forgot about Navarro. The administration is clearly keeping him away from the press.
Back in the ’80s, when Donald was busying himself with fucking up the USFL, the comic strip Bloom County described him as “a rube with too much loot.”
But it was nice back in ’16 to have someone call out the mealy-mouth mediocrities on both sides of the aisle for what they were.
If any other Republican had the stones to say “The Democrat Party is a gaggle of ugly women and effete men,” he might’ve won with ease. Especially since a politician’s wife decided to get uppity and rig the party apparatus into nominating her. But Donnie was the only one to say it, and it played well in Peoria.
Now we’re here, for better or worse.
For you, Pat:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Uai7M4RpoLU
*chef’s kiss*
Trump’s greatest accomplishment was preventing Hillary from becoming president. He’s also been useful in goading the left into supporting all kinds of bug fuck nutty batshit craziness.
Speaking of that, this video on the stupidity of trying to balance the budget by taxing the rich loses its oomph when the case is made by a man pretending to be a woman.
Yes, it’s a video made by the before place.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0x1gA3Z83Y
***
Jessica Riedl (formerly Brian Riedl) was a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, who focused on budget, tax, and economic policy.
***
[head desk]
https://manhattan.institute/person/jessica-riedl
At least the fat guy strip tease at the LP convention was comic relief.
I have a vivid memory of riding the R train in NYC to work on – checks notes – November 9, 2016 and some crazy old bat was already ranting about you know who. I guess that was after a whole summer of endless pussy hats and other mindless agitprop. The seething hatred was there from Day One and has not let up one bit.
I can abstract that the attitude exists, but I can’t get my head around it. I do not really understand these people.
The seething hate has always been there. It took COVID and TDS to make it visible to us. I think it was a shock, just how many were filled with hatred.
Common it was the R train. Who TF wants to take a local through Brooklyn?
Residents of Bay Ridge? There is an option to transfer to the N train at 59th Street but if your destination is Jersey City that’s useless because the N train skips lower Manhattan.
Monday, I’m gonna take a ride on the N train down to Coney Island…
Huh. I didn’t know they had a song that wasn’t THAT song. Or that they were from New York.
Monthly I would get on the R at the end of the line after grocery shopping at Ft Hamilton and would jump on the N at 59th.
The creepy thing was taking the R late at night. You would have to get off at 59th and wait for sometimes 30 min for the R to come up from the end of the line (96th?) at 59th then head back to end.
Trump’s biggest strength is at least a foot blocking the Lefty train. The People are seeing more of the fraud and never-ending double-down the DNC is pulling. (Esp on trans.) Making fun of certain things is becoming more ‘okay.’
I read the news and am thoroughly unaffected. (I dislike higher gas, but, I did back when, too. (I don’t like any of the Iran business, but again, that doesn’t affect me. *shrug*))
The cultural madness may be losing power. A Vance/whatever successor could further that. (Could further many things, sadly.) The econ battle won’t even begin until a Big Event forces it. The world will eventually burn again. (In new and exciting ways!)
So it goes. *kicks pebble*
“Drain the swamp!”
I crave new X-files episodes.
Only if they’re 90’s episodes and not the result of the insudtry as it stands today.
I steadfastly refused to watch the reboot, and don’t consider season 9 canon.
wut?
Why?
Sean is drunk and nostalgic.
They were going to make a new X-Files series.
Made by a black man. With black characters.
Basically, black X-Files.
Doesn’t it sound great?
The next president will be worse, building on the previous administration(s)
Trump can hardly finish a sentence without blaming Biden, the entire present administration has jumped on the bandwagon. Where were they when Good Ol’ Joe was stumbling around, incoherent a lot of the time?
Given the sorry ass state of the current Democratic party lineup, I suspect we may just see a president Vance, and I trust that smarmy fuck about as far as I could throw him.
And yet he will/may be a zillion percent better than anyone Team Other will puke up.
Newsom seeming to be their great white hope, I concur.
I’m not sure that Newsome is even radical enough to please the base these days. Didn’t he backpedal on the party’s support for males dominating female sports?
As of now, Iran, the economy, or something else very big would need to dramatically change for Blue to even slightly feel positive about ’28. I anticipate one, all, or all+ something else to occur between now and then.
Fuck, I’m kinda 50-50 on Trump *surviving* this term. And, we all know it, there’d be extensive celebration, a hive-mind explosion of positive energy, and running the only play they know, Dems would strangle democracy further to ‘Protect our vital institutions in face of this drastic action against a sitting politician…’ and ensure nothing can ever take the power they seize to smother any further attempt to ‘usurp’ their ‘proper authority.’
I would take the under on the MSM calling Vance “worse than Trump” in under 7 days.
Within 30 seconds of Trump departing this mortal coil, he will become a respected elder statesman, in stark contrast to L-I-T-E-R-A-L-L-Y H-I-T-L-E-R Republican running to replace them, just as every former Republican president since Reagan. Did I mention that it’s all. So. Fucking. Tiresome?
The real bet is how many years into the next Republican presidency before Trump gets painted as the elder statesmen (he’s going to live a while after he leaves office despite his age much to the chagrin of his enemies) like Bush The Lesser.
Newsome will say whatever he thinks he needs to say to win.
That is true. He might be the least principled politician I’ve ever seen.
+ French Laundry
He already is.
I had a conversation 2 weeks ago with a good friend who has absolutely lost it over Trump. It was heartbreaking in a way. My advice to him was to do what I have been doing since forever, which is to pay attention to my wife and kids and put my head down and go to work to provide for my family. Paying too much attention to politics is not a good thing. Of course I was the bad guy in the conversation for not more actively despising Drumpf and opposing fascism in all it forms. He is convinced Trump will not leave office after his term is up. I remember similar scenarios laid out by my dad when Bush was in office “he’s gonna suspend the constitution and appoint himself ruler.” It’s hard to watch otherwise smart people behave like this because of someone they don’t even really know.
Same.
That’s it in a nutshell. Trump has made otherwise sane people lose their everloving fucking minds, and I’m not really sure how they’ll cope when he’s gone.
“Trump has made otherwise sane people lose their everloving fucking minds…”
Their faith in The State was questioned. They bark loudest when things poke too close to home. Everything’s too close to home because they’ve ‘accepted’ the feelgoodery at face value.
Their faith is being questioned. Of course, they froth. People don’t react ‘sane’ when their belief is challenged.
What I most desire? For Lefties to get *pissed* they’ve been played! ANGRY! I’ll be thrilled if they start to question themselves, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves, here. Get pissed your clergy entrusted the US to the Man Who Wasn’t There.
And at the Media who refused to show Biden’s further descent into senility! My parents were both reporters /columnists! Their profession! The shame! But oh, no.
Their belief runs further. It’s really sad. (Our polite agreement to keep quiet over politics remains, valued by both.)
Other than (kinda) wreck the DNC, Trump broke up the Clinton/Bush dynasty.
From 1990 on there was either a Clinton or a Bush on the ticket for president.
Point of order. A Bush or Clinton was on the Prez ticket since 1980. ‘Ol Man Bush was the VP slot to RR on the 1980 and 1984 tickets.
The presidents in my lifetime have all been pretty shitty. I was born right at the end of Reagan and I have to say Clinton was probably the best? At least when reigned in and forced to work with the GOP after ’96.
When the culture has been degraded to the extent it has I don’t think you can really vote your way into a better situation. It really feels like everyone has just gotten dumber as I’ve gotten older. Even the older people?
President Clinton *inherited* the best time to be president. He was ‘great.’ Mostly, cuz he didn’t do anything. The ’94 wave prevented universal healthcare and any real big domestic policy. He gets credit for charismatically falling into:
a) the end of the Soviets and the Cold War
b) the rise of the internet and the microchip revolution
c) credit for not starting too much foreign shit (Kosovo I know of, I’m sure there’s more, but pretty dormant(?)
Damn. And, yep. Lost Congress, any ability to ‘push’ much. Best decade to grow up in. Trump’s #2. As a brake, alone.
Politics follows culture changes, so we got to find ways to swing the culture back toward liberty. Not impossible but haven’t put our fingers on the right words/actions yet.
Liberty hasn’t been valued for a very, very long time. And I’d say for a pretty small percentage of the country’s history. Even when it did you always had pretty glaring contradictions.
Regardless, when I look at where we are it’s less about policy and more about the fact that we’ve just become really, really fucking stupid. It’s hard to have conversations of any substance on modern politics. Forget about the past. I meet ‘kids’ as in people who are like 20 and they don’t even know fuck all about anything. The ones who think they’re in-tune spew conspiratorial nonsense about them that’s half commie gobbledygook. They don’t trust the powers that be, but they don’t really know enough about the actual events that take place to even articulate what it is they don’t trust. It’s something vague. A shadow of a shadow that they perceive, Then you get the detached ones who just don’t follow politics at all and live.
Then you have the boomer class who are more traditionally Democratic or Republican. They grew up basically believing authority figures at a time when things seemed smoother and that seemed acceptable. Only now the media landscape is all fractured and there’s too many voices telling them what to think and it’s frying their brains. People say Trump believes whatever the last person he spoke to talked him into five minutes ago, but that’s true of most of the older people I meet (as long as it somewhat coincides with their already preconceived notions of how things are).
We didn’t get here overnight and it’s not going to be fixed overnight. It’d take something pretty drastic to snap things back culturally.
In the meantime, we’re stuck debating about abortions and what percentage of the third world should be allowed to come here and vote Democrat.
Great article Pat. I agree with all of it.
Guardian: “Stripteases, ecstatic embraces and a dog in a dress: the full-on photos celebrating queer dancefloors worldwide”
Ya know. If you’re trying to be ‘accepted,’ wouldn’t you want to *pass?* Like. So no one thinks you’re weird? Isn’t that the goal?
Narrator: No. It isn’t.
There is some late-70s tit shown. The writing is… wow. Someone went to a big smart journolisting school, majored in ‘amorphous bullshit:
“I wanted the protest images side by side with the party images – the rage then the release
“The book is fluid and feelings-led,” explains Abraham. “I wanted it to feel like a night out.” The image selection – ranging continents, decades and styles – is cacophonous. Film stills, studio portraits, and even a Grindr screenshot take readers on a nonlinear dance through scenes of queer sociality.”
“I show people fucking around the world in history. <– There ya go. Pay me. *extends hand* See. It's HISTORICAL. That makes it fancy.