A new disease for the season is spreading…

…and it has been for some time

Unlike COVID and RSV, this new disease does not propagate in flu season - it spreads during election season, and with primaries looming, this disorder is gaining momentum. Unfortunately, there is no medication to cure this ailment. It is often caught at large, crowded, super-spreader events, and it seems to replicate rapidly. It appears to be a mutated strain of another illness that has been around for about eight years. The original bug is known as TDS: Trump Derangement Syndrome. The new infirmity I am terming TSS: Trump Savior Syndrome.

You have probably encountered this. Someone who believes Trump is the only hope for America, a person who states that, “we must back president Trump no matter what.” “He is the only one who is willing to stand against the Deep State,” is an oft repeated refrain. Though he failed to do so his first time in office, despite all his bluster, “only he can ‘drain the swamp,’” is still echoed regularly. This goes beyond the level of mere only-Trumpers.

There are so many other statements associated with this contagion, and there is one definitive symptom as well - comparing Trump to Jesus. There are many images and memes, even billboards, brandishing Scripture about Christ and applying them to Trump.

I once was accused of worshipping Trump. I was defending a couple of his decisions because, the reality is, he made some good policy decisions as president, and under his presidency, we had lower taxes, less regulation, low unemployment, and higher wages across all classes. I understand, to a degree, the attraction and desire to return to three years ago, especially considering what the current occupant of the White House and his party have done to the country. Of course, Trump had many missteps as well, some tragic, and some unconstitutional. Despite my protests, pointing out his flaws, stating that I did not vote for him in 2016 (I did not), asserting that I thought he behaved like a bombastic ass, averring that he spent money like a drunken Democrat sailor on shore leave, and that I didn’t agree with many things he did, I was still labeled a Trump-worshipper. I thought this rather ridiculous, and I couldn’t imagine anyone actually would worship Trump. I was wrong

Trump is a demagogue and as such has become the focus of a cult of personality; his worshippers have taken their support of him to the point of blasphemy. Worse, Trump gladly accepts this obeisance and even retweets it with thanks. As dangerous as the Democrats are (and the Republicans are only slightly less so), idolatry is more so. Obama was similarly idolized, and look where his presidency led. Of course, Trump’s presidency cannot be compared to Obama’s - one was pro-America, the other…not so much. However, both administrations were riddled with unconstitutional spending, among other things.

Keeping it in perspective, Trump had a lot going for him. As I already mentioned, the economy was strong, wages were up, unemployment was down, and taxes were cut. In addition, Trump loosened regulations resulting in the U.S. becoming energy-independent, renegotiated foreign trade making us a net exporter of rice, overturned the Iran nuclear deal, brokered the Abraham Accords establishing a more peaceful existence between Israel and some Arab countries, backed us out of the ludicrous Paris Accord, and, ostensibly his greatest achievement, he nominated three originalist/textualist justices to the Supreme Court. These incredible accomplishments lead Trump’s fans to completely overlook his atrocious failures.

Among one of Trump’s worst traits was never knowing who he could (or could not) trust. Trump has not, to my knowledge, yet learned this lesson. Trump also signed off on more (unconstitutional) spending than any of his predecessors. Billions (unconstitutionally) to pharmaceutical companies to develop covid shots. Billions in (unconstitutional) covid relief of which a pittance (unconstitutionally) went to citizens, while tens of millions (unconstitutionally) went to large corporations. He favored and instructed his administration to endorse (unconstitutional) Extreme Risk Orders (otherwise known as red flag laws). Trump favored elimination of devices that would allow firearms to be fired more quickly, and this led to a (unconstitutional) ban on bump stocks. He patted his own back for rushing the creation of and emergency use authorization for the Covid shots, and to this day has yet to say anything negative about them (he continued to laud them, at least until recently, and now wishes not to talk about them). There is plenty more to dislike about Trump (setting aside his mean tweets), and these should be significant enough to dissuade most; but for many, it does not.

The resistance to letting go of Trump may be due to the results of almost eight years of TDS. Trump has been unfairly persecuted from the time he entered the political arena. He was dogged during the primaries leading up to the 2016 election, spied on, then investigated throughout his presidency resulting in two (failed) impeachments. He is (wrongfully) blamed for the selfie-taking tour of the capital on January 6, an event which has since garnered the misnomer of “insurrection” and many false reports hyping it to have been worse than the BLM and Antifa riots during the “summer of love.” Now he is being prosecuted for allegedly trying to “overturn” the 2020 election; another, to my knowledge, false accusation. This last is being done, however, not just to vilify Trump and prevent him running again, but as an example to any who would oppose the official government narrative or the deep state.

Overall, Trump did live up to his promises in attempting to “make America great again,” but his time is passed, and he left some significant unconstitutional blunders in his wake. The deep state will not allow him a second term, though they do want people focused on him so they can take the presidency once again without a fight. There is another reason the deep state prefers voters to focus on Trump: it takes focus off Congressional races as well.  While his supporters must set aside their adulation and look to someone else who can win a (fair) election and who will, like Trump, fight the deep state (hopefully more successfully), we all need also to focus on cleaning up Congress. The president’s powers and authority are limited, and without a Congress that also will uphold the Constitution, we will continue down the path on which Obama and the current administration set us.

The kind of veneration heaped on Trump by his followers is the same type of idealization that not only gave us Obama, but brought Castro to power in Cuba and Stalin to power in the Soviet Union (surprisingly, even now Stalin’s popularity is again on the rise). This country was not founded on one man or on giving power to a single strong leader - a representative republic is dependent upon all of the elected representatives. We need people at every level of government who, like the justices nominated by Trump, are originalists/textualists in their thinking, and who will actually uphold the Constitution. We cannot expect one man to make that change. Trump is not our savior nor a political messiah. The founding fathers would never have fallen into the trap of idolizing an individual, and neither should we.