"Trump Derangement Syndrome Persists"

 This is being sent this evening, as I have an early morning doctor’s appointment – a routine checkup, but I do not want to be late. 

 

The rubric in the essay below is from Joseph Epstein, one of the best essayists writing today. It was selected before the Left’s deranged brouhaha over his reference to Dr. Jill Biden. Their attitude (the Left’s) certainly does not portend a return to normalcy, if normalcy is defined as civility and reason. In fact, I would suggest their forced and supercilious reaction indicated behavior in need of therapy. Of course, they likely feel the same way about me, which is what makes democracy so interesting.  

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“Trump Derangement Syndrome Persists”

December 15, 2020

 

“In stage three [of Trump Derangement Syndrome], one is ready to believe anything

– anything pernicious or salacious, that is – about Mr. Trump and to reject anything

he has done that might be good for the country, if only because of the man who did it.”

                                                                                                                                                Joseph Epstein (1937 - )

                                                                                                                                                Wall Street Journal

                                                                                                                                                July 9, 2020

 

While I have not fussed much over last month’s election results, I believe, despite the Electoral College certifying the election, that there was fraud and other shenanigans. How else to explain halted vote counting in swing states; election rules changed without authorization from state legislatures; unsigned mail-in ballots, etc. Can we really believe that a candidate who spent much of the campaign in his home received ten million more votes than did Barack Obama in 2012? Congress and state legislatures should ensure that voter laws are explicit and fair. One is left wondering, not only about voter fraud, but about the size of the turnout. Apparently 156 million people voted, or 66% of registered voters, the highest percentage since 1900 and twenty percent more people than in 2016! Now, Mr. Trump’s options are gone; nevertheless, when politics smell fishy, it is usually more than a week-old Mackerel in the trunk of a car. 

 

Last Friday’s lead editorial in our local paper, The Day, stated: “But Trump has caused profound damage, having convinced tens of millions of people who voted for him that Biden is not a legitimate president.” Whether the statemen is true or not, I do not know, but the hypocrisy of the paper’s editorial board is heavier than a London fog. They, and most of mainstream media, never condemned the “Resistance” that for four years claimed Trump was an illegitimate president. They avoided the subject of Mr. Biden’s noticeable deteriorating mental acuity and stayed away from the Hunter Biden scandal. The Day posits itself as independent. Their masthead reads: “The newspaper should be more than a business enterprise. It should also be a champion and protector of the public interest and defender of the people’s rights.” Sadly, the paper, like so many others, has become a defender of the progressive movement and a foe of the messiness that is natural to the democracy of a free and independent people. In looking for potential threats to liberty, the media has a habit of ignoring peril from the left, like the hairbrained schemes of stacking the Supreme Court and doing away with the filibuster in the U.S. Senate. Wannabe tyrants do not alienate the media and reduce the power of government, as Trump has done with his sarcastic remarks to the press, and as he did in cutting regulations. Budding despots befriend the media, and they increase personal and government power through rules and regulations, like Governors Cuomo and Newsom. 

 

Trump will leave office in January, but it is unlikely the media will move on. “The spirit of Trumpism,” as Roger Kimball wrote recently, “is not vanquished.” So, Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) will remain, as it has served to bolster the bottom lines of media enterprises. Do the New York Times and the Washington Post expect to maintain their reader and viewer-ships when their big stories are about the patterns on Biden’s socks, or querying about his mending ankle? Will mainstream media do an about-face and lavish praise on Mr. Trump for reducing black unemployment to record lows, for creating Operation Warp Speed that gave us a vaccine in record time, for getting four Arab nations to recognize Israel, for confronting China on stealing technology, or for marginalizing Iran in their pursuit of nuclear weapons? It is far more likely they will continue to hound the only U.S. President whose net worth dropped by more than a billion dollars while he served the American people. To do so is good for their bottom line. Will Mr. Biden be queried about his deteriorating mental state or his son Hunter who made millions, using his Dad’s influence, from a country that is America’s largest economic and military threat. Will Hunter be treated with the same disdain as President Trump’s children? Not likely, as that would offend ‘woke’ readers.

 

Joe Biden promises a return to normal. In May 2019, while seeking the Democratic nomination, he said, “The country is sick of division. They’re sick of the fighting. They’re sick of the childish behavior.” However, which Party sought to divide people by race, gender and sexual orientation? Which Party was behind the riots that devastated cities like Portland and Seattle? Was it not childish for Democrats to boycott Mr. Trump’s inauguration in 2017? Mr. Biden’s words were ones with which no one can disagree, but how to achieve conciliation in a nation where, as Walter Williams once said, “liberty refers to the sovereignty of the individual,” not the right to free college and healthcare? Will Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer put politics aside, link arms with Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy and sing Kumbaya? Will the concept of diversity expand to include diversity of opinion? Will the police again be allowed to confront criminals without fear of losing their jobs? Will borders be opened to anyone, so long as they register as Democrats? Will Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia be admitted as states, to assure four more Democratic U.S. Senators? Will the Supreme Court be expanded to achieve a progressive majority? Will Black Lives Matter and Antifa recede into the shadows, as their usefulness has ended with the ascendancy of Biden and Harris? Will one-Party rule be the future for this rich and diverse nation? “But let there be no change by usurpation, for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed,” wrote George Washington in his 1796 Farewell Address?   

 

And what about our schools and universities? Will teachers’ unions put students first, even if it means sending them to non-unionized charter schools? Will colleges become venues for open debate? Will university professors’ welcome conservatives who might influence the malleable minds of students, yet untutored in their progressive, Orwellian world? As long as the spirit of Trumpism exists, it is more likely that dissent will be forbidden, no matter which Republican carries the banner. One thing we know – tyrants, from the right or the left, cannot abide those who disagree. 

 

Trump Derangement Syndrome says more about those who have it than about Mr. Trump. It is a condition in which an individual’s visceral hatred for Mr. Trump causes him or her to forsake logic and reason. It is held by those who see in Mr. Trump’s character a man who fights as hard and as ruthlessly as do they. And it will be around as long as Mr. Trump and what he stands for are perceived as a threat to the ‘deep state’ and a progressive agenda. But it is not aimed solely at Mr. Trump. It is what he represents, a threat to our cultural elite and the cozy lives of Washington’s insiders. Ulysses Grant was not liked by traditional West Pointers, but he was fearless; he had common sense, an abiding faith in ultimate victory, and he did not let up. Lincoln may not have admired his whiskey habit (though he offered to send a barrel of Grant’s favorite to his other generals), but he respected and needed his fighting spirit. The United States has had the same two Parties for the past two hundred and sixty-six years. Yet one Party dominates our culture, media, universities, public-sector unions, Wall Street, global firms, tech companies, ‘green’ businesses and Washington’s bureaucracy. In Trump, the American people found an individual who fights for the average American and helps reverse the slide toward stateism. A free people cannot live in a one-Party country.

 

One consequence of what we have witnessed: January’s Senatorial runoffs loom ever more important. As Monday’s Wall Street Journal’s lead editorial stated: “There is a time to fight, and a time to concede.” Now is the time for Republicans, including Mr. Trump and his supporters, to accept Mr. Biden’s victory and to focus on Georgia.

"Political Realignment, Class Warfare & Regressive Costs"

 This is a subject about which I have been thinking for some time, and which deserves consideration and debate. I recognize others have addressed it as well, probably more thoroughly and eloquently. At any rate, here is my two cents worth:

 

Sydney M. Williams

30 Bokum Road – Apartment 314

Essex, CT 06426

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“Political Realignment, Class Warfare & Regressive Costs”

December 9, 2020

 

“His pioneering 1982 book, The State Against Blacks, is an eloquent data-rich

broadside against occupational licensing, taxicab regulations, labor union privileges and

other fine-sounding government measures that inflict disproportionate harm on blacks by

restricting the employment options and by driving up the costs of goods and services.”

                                                                                                       Donald J. Boudreaux (1968 -)

                                                                                                       Professor of Economics, George Mason University

                                                                                                       On death of Walter Williams (1936 -2020)

            Wall Street Journal, December 3, 2020

 

The single biggest change in politics in my lifetime has been the reorientation of the political parties. Historically, Democrats represented the working classes, while Republicans had the backing of the monied classes on Wall Street and the occupiers of office suites in big businesses. Labor versus capital was a simplified definition. 

 

Things have changed. Roles have been reversed. My State of Connecticut is a proxy for wealthy blue states. It is the 5^th wealthiest in terms of income and was solidly Republican when I was growing up. This year, it voted 59% for Joe Biden. The three towns in which I have lived for the past fifty years, Greenwich, Old Lyme and Essex – all in the top 12% of Connecticut’s wealthiest towns – voted between 61% and 63% for Joe Biden. November’s vote was not a one-time event. All five House members are Democrats. Connecticut’s two U.S. Senators are ranked eight (Richard Blumenthal) and sixteen (Chris Murphy) in terms of most progressive. The last Republican to serve in the House of Representatives was Chris Shays who lost re-election in 2008. The last Republican U.S. Senator from Connecticut was Lowell Weicker, who lost re-election in 1988. This Democratic Party is not your grandfather’s Party. It has become the Party of the establishment. The only two counties in Connecticut to vote for Donald Trump were Windham and Litchfield, the two most rural counties. In both counties, his margin of victory was four percentage points. Sixty years ago, Connecticut was as solidly Republican as it is solidly Democratic today.

 

Why has this happened? The shift took place during the 1960s and 1970s, during a period when I became registered as a Democrat. For me, in my late 20s, it was a combination of civil rights and Vietnam, and a feeling that whatever my parents were for I should be against. By the mid 1970s, when markets and the economy turned down, I realized my parents may have been smarter than I had thought – that to succeed financially, intellectually, personally and emotionally, one had to be aspirant, have a positive outlook, be self-reliant and willing to work hard. 

 

Throughout most of the 1980s, living in Connecticut was like living in Switzerland for those working in New York. There was no income tax, and property taxes were relatively low. It is a beautiful state, with 253 miles of shoreline and the largest river in New England, the Connecticut, which flows into Long Island Sound between Old Saybrook and Old Lyme. Roughly 130,000 acres of the state’s farm and woodland are under conservation. It is conveniently situated between New York and Boston. But Democrat control has left a dismal record of fiscal irresponsibility. Today, it is 5^th in terms of debt as a percent of GDP, 4^th in terms of local and state debt per capita, 4^th in terms of unfunded pension liabilities, 3^rd in terms of wealth inequality and 2^nd in terms of combined sales and income taxes. Not surprisingly, Connecticut was one of ten states to lose population over the past ten years. Like other high-taxed states, the loss was due to people moving to other states, not because deaths outnumbered births.

 

As the state became more Progressive, its policies and taxes became more regressive. The State’s income tax is, admittedly, on a sliding scale. However, complication in the tax code is a boon to accountants and tax lawyers; they are hired by the wealthy and thrive in this environment. Surely, it is not coincidental that Connecticut ranks 4^th in terms of lawyers per capita. A flat tax, with no deductions, would be the simplest and most progressive, but lobbyists for lawyers and accountants will never let that happen. Other taxes, like sales, gasoline and property are regressive, in that they consume a larger percentage of the income from low earners than high earners. The lottery, casinos and sports betting (something Connecticut is considering) appeal to the less wealthy, as visions of unearned riches parade before them. Green energy sounds like a good idea, but keep in mind who bears the cost. Connecticut ranks 3^rd in terms of cost of energy, measured in cents per kilowatt hour. While the United States has witnessed a natural gas bonanza because of fracking and horizontal drilling, and natural gas prices have declined from $5.00 in December 2010 to $2.89 in November 2020, Connecticut homeowners’ electricity costs are almost double what they were ten years ago. Once batteries are capable of storing energy for months, solar may make sense. But the wind farm Connecticut is constructing in Long Island Sound will, in my opinion, prove to be an environmental disaster, with construction of the turbines damaging the seabed and the inevitable killing of birds who live on and migrate through the Sound. And where is nuclear? 

 

Excessive regulations benefit big businesses, as they limit competition from minority-owned smaller companies and start-ups, as Walter Williams pointed out in his 1982 book, The State Against Blacks, quoted in the rubric. But the truth is their effect is regressive on all small businesses and budding entrepreneurs. Reactions to COVID-19 show how distanced progressives have become from lower income people. In a case of “Big Brother knows best,” lockdowns, which hurt the most economically vulnerable, are enacted by officials and supported by the media who are less at risk of losing their jobs. Elites in business, government, entertainment, the media and the academy have lost their sense of what it was like to start out.

 

Even education has suffered under progressive leadership. Increased spending per student has not generated the results expected. Governor Ned Lamont recently boasted that Connecticut’s K-12 schools ranked third in the country. What he did not mention were the reading and math proficiency scores for fourth and eighth graders, as measured by the National Assessment and Educational Process. In both areas, proficiency for the State’s public schools were less than 50%. That this is mainly a Democratic cause can be seen in the fact that the two principal teachers’ unions give 90-95% of their political contributions to Democrats. 

 

As the Parties realign, what strikes an observer is that class, not race or gender, is the fault line. In the 1930s through the 1960s, the Democratic Party became the preferred venue for blacks. Prior to that, they had generally voted with the “Party of Lincoln.” We are witness to another such shift – this time driven by economic class warfare. In losing the election, Trump picked up support from minorities, women and the LGBTQ community. Where he lost support was among suburban white men. Arrogance and condescension emanating from Progressives do not help those who struggle to make ends meet, individuals who also value their freedom and independence. It is an example of that age-old Chinese adage: it is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish. The latter feeds him for a day, the former for a lifetime. Today’s privileged, measured by wealth or education, do not want to upset the status quo, which they find in the Democratic Party. The Republican Party has become the Party for those climbing up economic and social ladders, irrespective of race, religion or gender. It is, thus, the more radical Party, in that it recognizes the need for change, while hewing to those principles of tradition and family, which have helped previous generations become American success stories.