I was devastated when Barack Obama won the 2008 election. But the next day, I went to work and went back to living my life. I got married the following year. Got a dog two years after that. Became a father two years after that. Despite being politically active and having to watch Obama destroy this country in real time, I still lived my life. Apparently, that ability to separate politics from daily existence has become an impossible feat for the left.
A condition informally known as Trump Derangement Syndrome has reportedly affected Americans since the 2016 presidential election and appears to be increasing rather than declining. Common symptoms include paranoia, hysteria, intense hostility toward President Donald Trump, aggression toward his supporters, and restlessness. Manhattan psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert discussed the phenomenon during a recent appearance on Fox News with Harris Faulkner. "People are obsessed with Trump," he explained. "They're fixated. They're hyperfixated on Trump.”
Recommended: Democrats Forced to Delete Another False Claim About Trump and Epstein
"I had one patient who said she couldn't enjoy a vacation because any time she saw Trump in the news or on her device, she felt triggered,” he said.
I went to Hawaii for my honeymoon; I didn’t refuse to go there because of Obama’s connection to the state. I had a layover in Chicago, too. Didn’t bother me at all. Eventually, I would go on to write a few books about Obama, but I never let it run my life.
But I digress. Alpert described the condition as "a profound pathology, and I would even go so far as to call it the defining pathology of our time." Alpert estimates that roughly three-quarters of his patients show these symptoms, and he says their anger toward Trump surfaces within minutes of sitting down.
But here’s the thing: Trump will leave office on Jan. 20, 2029, but this pattern will continue long after Trump leaves public life. For the left, the current Republican president or presidential nominee always becomes the worst thing in their life. George W. Bush was repeatedly likened to Hitler during his presidency. Today, the left is practically nostalgic for his presidency.
In 2008, the left compared John McCain to Hitler and called him a bigot. Left-wing website Slate literally declared McCain, a moderate, worse than Bush. What happened next? McCain became the left's favorite Republican.
The next Hitler was Mitt Romney in 2012. Various Democrat leaders and pundits were making such comparisons. But when Romney spoke out against Trump, he was suddenly not so bad. He was suddenly a good Republican.
In fact, the left has already been laying the groundwork for how Trump’s successor would be worse than him. During his first term, the left told us that Pence would be worse. Today, there are articles online declaring that JD Vance is worse than Trump. It’s never going to stop. The next GOP presidential nominee or president will inevitably be deemed worse than Trump, and the next one after that worse than the one who succeeded Trump.
What does this tell us? Well, it tells me that the problem here isn’t Trump at all. The problem is a left that treats every political opponent as an existential threat to them. Politics has swallowed their lives to the point where they can’t separate ordinary living from partisan drama. Sooner or later, they’ll look back on the Trump years with a strange sense of nostalgia because there will always be another figure they decide is even worse.
