People who like everything the current president does long ago — out of necessity — invented a critical term for people like me who like almost nothing the current president does.
It’s really the weakest riposte that they could have created, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Anytime a critic like me lays into another boneheaded — or globally dangerous — thing he says or does, they say that we are merely infected with Trump Derangement Syndrome. That we continue to point out the problems when we see them means, by this very weak logic, that we have been driven nuts by the fellow, and are thus incapable of being objective.
I assure you that I would be very happy to take note of the excellent rather than lousy things he says or does, and once I find one, I’ll report back. Can’t point to anything at the moment, but we’ve got four more years, and I’ll be watching.
This isn’t about politics, as such. It’s about being a normal, caring, mindful, at least mildly sensitive human being.
Take two people who, on the old political spectrum, are pretty far apart. Take former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a fairly liberal Democrat, and former President George W. Bush, a fairly conservative Republican.
While they may not agree on much politically, they are also both normies. Unlike the current president, they accept the results of elections. Unlike the current president, they accept invitations to inaugurations even when they would have preferred to see someone else in the White House.
At Trump’s inauguration, it was somehow quite life-affirming to see Hillary and W., who happened to be seated near each other at the cramped ceremony, both be unable to contain the need to smirk — to laugh out loud, even — when patent absurdities and outright lies were uttered by Trump.
“A short time from now we are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,” the absolutely bonkers current president actually used time in this key speech to the American people to say. Hillary, being a normal human being, cracked up at the inanity of this.
As People magazine reports, “Bush, 78, was seen containing laughter, raising his eyebrows and winking throughout the event.”
His daughter, Jenna Bush Hager, said on the “Today” show the next morning, “You all already guessed what moment has been blowing up our family group chat. Yeah, my dad went viral for these cutaway shots during yesterday’s broadcast. The internet’s obsessed with this little smile and goofy expression.”
As he walked into the rotunda, W. was asked if he was “going to behave.” His new buddy, also a normie, former President Barack Obama, answered for him, offering a quick “Nope.”
“They’re pals,” Bush Hager said. “I think it shows that even in divisive times, we have so much more that unites us. So let’s just pray for that.”
Yes, we normies do have a lot that unites us. The unfortunate President Trump instead works to create more division. In an appalling appearance Thursday after the tragic crash of an Army helicopter and a passenger plane at Reagan National, Trump, after starting out appropriately with a moment of silence for the 67 people who died, went on a half-hour rampage, insanely blaming the crash on DEI efforts at the Federal Aviation Administration for lowering standards for air traffic controllers.
He said that the federal government went out of its way to find controllers who were “disabled.” He then laid into the Obama administration, claiming it had determined that the FAA work force was “too White.”
Want more? I don’t. But in just his first few days back in office, Trump created new immigration rules that maliciously keep out of our country Afghan allies who aided American troops for 10 years and more and were promised entry visas and now are in mortal danger.
He made up a weird, entirely untrue story: “The United States Military just entered the Great State of California and, under Emergency Powers, TURNED ON THE WATER flowing abundantly from the Pacific Northwest, and beyond.”
Literally nothing of the sort happened.
The deranged shoe is on the other foot. Lies like this are an ongoing national embarrassment.
Larry Wilson is on the Southern California News Group editorial board. lwilson@scng.com.