Wikipedia provides the following definition of "TDS," which I have used as my title, as seen above:
Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) is a pejorative term used to describe negative reactions to U.S. president Donald Trump that are characterized as irrational and disconnected from Trump's actual policy positions. The term has mainly been used by Trump supporters to discredit criticism of him, as a way of reframing the discussion by suggesting that his opponents are incapable of accurately perceiving the world.
I thought I might make a brief comment on "Trump Derangement Syndrome" since I have been accused of being afflicted by it. Some of my Facebook Friends, too, who have made comments that ended up on my Facebook page, have also been called out as carriers of TDS.
As is so often the case, when arguments over issues of importance occur, accusing the "other side" of something that actually applies to you and "your side" is a well-proven way to defend oneself from criticism. For supporters of our current president to say that Trump critics are "incapable of accurately perceiving the world" is actually humorous, in a way, because a lot of the criticisms of our current president are based on the fact that he frequently says things that, seemingly, don't actually square with reality - at least reality as most people perceive it.
If you click here, you will be transported to a brief, online comment from the BBC, the theme of which is that our current president has provided contradictory "mixed messages" about the war he started in Iran. I, personally, think it's pretty accurate to say that these statements, and other statements made by our current president, do not accurately depict the world as the vast majority of the world perceives it. In other words, if there is any "derangement" in our relationship with the current president, the "derangement" is mostly on the president's side.
I, however, don't think it's too helpful to argue about who is the most "deranged," the president or his critics. To the extent we pursue that approach, we will find ourselves, on both "sides," slipping around in an increasingly muddy pit full of accusations and responses.
I wrote about our current president in this blog back on January 21st, and suggested that "the people," to whom the president is legally and constitutionally responsible, need to decide this question: Did we make a mistake in electing him to the presidency?
Back in January, when I published that earlier blog posting, our current president had not yet started a world-altering war with Iran. Now he has. Do we think that what our current president did was a mistake? If so, it was a huge and horrible one. If we think that choosing to begin that war was a mistake - based on what has happened since - then we need to take action to correct that mistake.
I'm suggesting that we - acting through our representatives in the United States Congress - need to deliberate on this question. Seriously! Was it a mistake for our current president to start a war with Iran without obtaining the authority and direction to do so, as the Constitution provides? Was it a mistake, and has that mistake had negative consequences for us (and for the world)?
If our current president's unilateral action in starting a war with Iran was a huge and consequential mistake, would it make sense to put someone else in charge? The Constitution does provide a mechanism for us to do that, to correct such a mistake, if that's what we decide it was!
Image Credit:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_derangement_syndrome
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