Who's Really Crazy?

For anyone who thought that 2018 would bring a return to calm and stability on the political front, you've got to be severely disappointed.  In the first week we've seen the publication of a wildly salacious book by a sleazy gossip columnist who has disparaged the President, his allies, friends and family beyond anything imaginable.  I wrote a short blog post about this a few days ago to provide just a bit of context and my thoughts on this whole sordid mess.  You can read it here.  You don't have to go to far to see what this guy's real motivation is.  Check his comments at this article.  Now I get that this is a right-wing site, but a quote is a quote.  His motivations are definitely to damage Trump by whatever means he can.Bottom line quote is:

"boasted to host Nick Robinson that “the story” that he told, “will finally end...this presidency” once and for all."

As the days go by and the predictable hysteria erupts, it seems to me to be getting stranger and stranger.  Now we hear that a group of Democratic Congressmen asked for and were briefed by a prominent psychiatrist, Dr Bandy Lee, from Yale about Trump's mental state.  She is a very well respected psychiatrist with great credentials, but her diagnosis based on news reports and distant observations is pretty unprofessional.  Here's a summation of her analysis:

I'm glad that whatever group she heads has declined to force an evaluation as she fears it would look like a coup.  Ya think?  There are millions and millions of people who would see this as a direct challenge to the rule of law and the legitimate results of an election.  And I fear the reaction by some of the more strident Trump supporters.  But I have to say that I'd certainly do what I could to oppose such idiocy.

Of course, the media is reacting predictably.  The liberal site, VOX has run a piece about this effort that seems to agree and promote the idea.  You can read it here.    And the Washington Examiner has predictably called this effort out as not only nuts but very unprofessional.  You can read their thoughts here.  So as usual, where you stand depends on where you sit.  

Instead of focusing on some imaginary mental instability of President Trump, you'd think that the Democrats would be working hard to unseat the Republican majority at the elections in November.  You'd think they'd be trying to expand their tent and bringing in funding to support their ideology across the country.  You'd be wrong.  I saw this photo of Congressman Keith Ellison posing with a book promoting Antifa, the supposed anti-fascists that are really just a bunch of cowardly thugs who have been designated a domestic terror organization.  Ellison is the number two guy at the Democratic National Committee.  Put Ellison together with Tom Perez, their leader, and you have a couple of guys who are amazingly divisive, narrowly focused, and possess an unshakable hard left philosophy.  This doesn't seem to me to be the way to expand the party and bring more people in.  I've also seen a few articles comparing the amount of funding the DNC and the RNC have in the bank.  The disparity is pretty shocking.  Check out this article at CNNPolitics.com.  The stats are pretty damning.  For instance the article states that, "National Republicans have more than $40 million more in the bank than the Democratic National Committee, ballooning from only a $10 million advantage immediately after the presidential election. Democrats now have just $5 million in the bank with $3 million in loans".  And take a look at the charts in the article.  I'd say the Dems are in deep shit unless they can move more toward the mainstream.  I made a prediction in a blog post a few weeks ago that the 2018 mid-term elections weren't going to be as bad for the Republicans as most think.  I'm starting to become more confident in that prediction.

But all of this nonsense shows that we have let the zealots take over our political dialog.  We've got to figure out a way to get back to civility, back to reasonable disagreements, back to working together where there are ways to do that.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not putting all the blame on the Dems.  There's plenty of blame to go around.  Trump can be an abrasive blowhard, but it doesn't mean that he's mentally unstable.  And there are Dems who smugly declare that they are the only ones who can govern fairly, but that doesn't mean that there aren't many who couldn't see the wisdom of working together for common goals if they weren't blinded by hatred.  Maybe it can't turn around.  But if it doesn't we're headed toward even more gridlock and even more vitriol.  I guess there are some that think that's okay.  I don't.