Has so-called “Trump Derangement Syndrome” moved you farther left?

Yes. My political positions are more partisan/militant/uncompromising than before. To the barricades!
Total votes: 4 (20%)
No. I’m pretty much where I was before on the political spectrum. I am a rock.
Total votes: 15 (75%)
This poll sucks and the choices provided cannot even begin to define the uniqueness that is me. Fail!
Total votes: 1 (5%)
Total votes: 20

“Trump Derangement Syndrome”

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A column by David Leonhardt discusses the twin myths of Trump Derangement Syndrome and that both parties are abandoning the center and becoming more extreme (hint: it’s really just the one...).

https://nyti.ms/2NjoC8g
Conventional wisdom says that the middle is disappearing from American politics: The Republicans have moved far to the right, the Democrats far to the left, and woe to any moderate voters looking for politicians to represent their views.

Well, the conventional wisdom is wrong. The Democrats have not actually become radical leftists, or anything close to it.

You keep hearing this story partly because Republicans have an obvious interest in promoting it and partly because large parts of the news media find it irresistible. It’s a “both side do it” angle that allows us journalists to appear tough, knowing and above the partisan scrum. We love that image. But the facts don’t support the story in this case.

For starters, look at this year’s primaries, which finished last week. Across the country, a grand total of two Democratic incumbents in the House lost a primary. Zero Senate candidates did. In conservative states with moderate Democratic senators — like Indiana, North Dakota, and West Virginia — not one of those moderates even faced a serious primary challenge.

The situation was very different in 2010 with the Tea Party, which pushed the Republican Party to the right. Multiple incumbents lost that year, as Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report noted last week. “Please stop with the ‘revolution’ in the Democratic Party narrative,” she said. This year’s real story is the one that the political scholars Lara Putnam and Theda Skocpol have tried to tell: Anti-Trump activists have taken a strategic approach, backing either moderate or more progressive candidates, depending on the district.

It’s true that a few proudly left-leaning Democrats won gubernatorial primaries, like Stacey Abrams in Georgia and Andrew Gillum in Florida. But I encourage you to watch a few of their speeches. For one thing, both are strong candidates. For another, they are hardly socialists. And the list of progressive insurgents who got thumped is much longer. In New York, Cynthia Nixon didn’t crack 35 percent.

Meanwhile, in Congress, the party’s reaction to President Trump tells a similar story. Political pundits sometimes talk about “Trump derangement syndrome” — a condition, supposedly, in which his presidency has made Democrats go crazy. Except that it hasn’t.

To take just one example: There is strong evidence that Trump has broken the law, both by obstructing justice and by using the presidency to enrich himself. Still, Democratic leaders refuse to push for impeachment. They say the country should wait for Robert Mueller’s investigation to finish. I think that’s wise. Either way, it’s certainly not deranged.

Finally, there is policy. Democrats have indeed moved somewhat to the left over the last few decades, on both social and economic issues. As Lawrence Summers, the former Treasury secretary (and no lefty revolutionary), likes to say, the last 15 years should have nudged open-minded people to the political left: The free market isn’t delivering healthy increases in living standards for most Americans. In response, Democrats are focusing less on Bill Clinton’s old themes, like personal and fiscal responsibility, and more on using the government to help people.

But think about what a truly left-wing agenda would look like: Top tax rates of 70 percent (which we had as recently as 1980) or higher. A generous “universal basic income.” The elimination of employer-provided health insurance, with a system more like Britain’s. These ideas remain limited to the margins. None is likely to happen even if Democrats sweep the elections of 2020.

I’m not suggesting that the party has completely avoided Trump overreaction. In our polarized era, Democrats do sometimes confuse its progressive base with the country as a whole. They are to the left of the American public on immigration policy, for instance.

For the most part, though, the Democratic agenda remains decidedly center-left: Raise taxes on the rich, and use the money to help the middle class and poor. Protect civil rights. Expand educational access. Regulate Wall Street, and fight climate change. Expand health insurance using the current system. And compromise with Republicans when necessary.

The radical agenda is the Republican agenda: Make climate change worse, unlike almost every other conservative party in the world. Aggravate inequality. Sabotage health-insurance markets. Run up the deficit. Steal a Supreme Court seat. Keep dark-skinned citizens from voting. Protect Trump’s lawlessness.

If you consider yourself a moderate — whether you lean slightly right or slightly left — your choice in this year’s midterms is clear.

And if you consider yourself a leftist, I understand you are probably frustrated that the Democrats won’t go further. But look at the big picture. The Democratic Party may not have moved nearly as much as you would like, but the party has moved. It has adjusted its agenda in response to soaring inequality and stagnant living standards.

The one mistake no voter should make is pretending that the two parties are just different versions of the same thing.
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Re: “Trump Derangement Syndrome”

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YankeeTarheel wrote: Mon Sep 17, 2018 7:12 am I went from being totally for gun control to gun ownership when I woke up the morning of Nov 9, 2016 and it wasn't a bad dream that this racist fascist bully and would-be mafiosa had been elected despite losing the popular vote.
Now you're "woke" ;)

Healthcare, as it "functions" now is going to kill the middle class. (And the ACA is marginally better than what we had before)

Re: “Trump Derangement Syndrome”

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I've been radicalized by the Orange Puke. I can't wait until early voting starts just to feel SOME satisfaction that I have farted in the direction of conservatives.
"Being Republican is more than a difference of opinion - it's a character flaw." "COVID can fix STUPID!"
The greatest, most aggrieved mistake EVER made in USA was electing DJT as POTUS.

Re: “Trump Derangement Syndrome”

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I'm in hopes that one morning I'll wake up and politics won't be the freak show it is right now. There are a few honest Republicans left, but the bulk have shown that they are truly the party of greed and they lost any ethics they may have had. Me, me, me is their mantra and any social conscience they had is gone. Maybe to get to that point everyone has to take a pledge to give up 24 hour media, turn-off TVs, radios and abandon social media and limit news binges to getting the basics. I don't think it will ever happen, but I can dream.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: “Trump Derangement Syndrome”

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Since I do not FaceBook or Twitter, is it my imagination the Orange Puke has slowed down his postings or has the media finally decided he has nothing new to say and no longer reporting them? Seems awfully quite since Manafuck rolled.
"Being Republican is more than a difference of opinion - it's a character flaw." "COVID can fix STUPID!"
The greatest, most aggrieved mistake EVER made in USA was electing DJT as POTUS.

Re: “Trump Derangement Syndrome”

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Charles M. Blow has a nice companion piece to the Leonhardt column.

Not Deranged. Determined!
https://nyti.ms/2Ngwojn
They told us that we suffered from Trump Derangement Syndrome, an emotional and illogical obsession with opposing and unseating Donald Trump.

They saw our principled stand against corruption and criminality, against immorality and hatred, as born of hyper-partisanship and the bruises of defeat.

They were unable to see that our objection to Trump was an achingly particular phenomenon that transcended party tribalism and went to the core of who we are as a people and a country.

For us, it was clear: This man was wholly unacceptable, as a matter of character. And true patriotism demanded that we say so, without equivocation, and unrelentingly.

Trump had become the president by a complex web of occurrences: white racial anxiety, reaction to the first black president, unease about the possibility of the first female president, voter suppression and voter apathy, and an attack on our elections by the Russians.

This presidency has been haunted by the specter of illegitimacy from its inception.

And yet, the markets didn’t crash. The economy kept humming. We entered no new major foreign conflicts, although we have cozied up to people who should be enemies and spat in the faces of people who used to be friends.

The Trump presidency was not the cataclysm that many had feared, but the possibility of damage hovers over us. What would he do if Robert Mueller’s Russia probe inched too close to him, his family or his fortune? What would happen if one of his children were indicted? (Donald Trump Jr., I’m looking at you.) What if Mueller produced a damning report? What if Congress used that report to begin impeachment proceedings?

We know that Trump is volatile, uncontrollable and unpredictable. So, we live a life with nerves frayed and bodies pushed to the edge of our seats. We know that he remains defiant because there are people who support him without hesitation and without question. They are the deranged, not us.

This constant state of chaos and anxiety has been exhausting and nearly unbearable, but it is all coming to a head in November when the defiant, the resisters, the never-Trumpers, will get to have their voices heard in a way that reaches beyond protests and rallies.

It will be the rest of America’s first chance at the polls to show just how unacceptable and repulsive we view Trump and his Republican enablers in Congress. It will be the first time for people to shift power away from him and his cronies and toward people willing to hold him accountable.

And it looks like people are champing at the bit for the chance. There has been extraordinarily high voter turnout in primary races across the country, including in New York, Michigan, Arizona, Vermont and Iowa.

Last month, the Minnesota secretary of state, Steve Simon, tweeted after that state’s primary:

“Minnesota, you crushed it last night! With 100% Reporting: 902,119 people voted in the primary; the highest number of primary voters since 1982. Overall turnout was approximately 22.7%; the highest turnout percentage in a primary since 1994. Amazing!”

Most of that energy is coming from people opposed to Trump and his corrupt administration, thereby benefiting Democrats.

Trump’s already low approval rating has taken a hit in recent weeks with Mueller’s investigation making steady progress: the guilty plea and now apparent cooperation of Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime lawyer; the plea and cooperation of his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort; the explosive new book by Bob Woodward and the damning anonymous op-ed written by an administration official and published in The New York Times.

This is the worst possible scenario for the president and his party less than two months from Election Day.

As Gallup pointed out last week:

“The president’s party almost always suffers a net loss of U.S. House seats in midterm elections. However, losses tend to be much steeper when the president is unpopular. In Gallup’s polling history, presidents with job approval ratings below 50 percent have seen their party lose 37 House seats, on average, in midterm elections. That compares with an average loss of 14 seats when presidents had approval ratings above 50 percent.”

Trump’s approval rating is at 40 percent, and unlike his predecessors, he is not a normal president. He is a divisive lightning rod.

Democrats are not only likely to win control of the House of Representatives; they also have a long-shot chance of taking control of the Senate, although the map is working against them.

FiveThirtyEight gives Democrats a five-in-six chance of taking control of Congress and Republicans a one-in-six chance of holding it. Their average estimate for the number of seats Democrats will pick up is 39; they only need to gain 23 to take control.

Resistance up to this point has largely been a statement of principle, but when we vote in November it will be an expression of power. We’re not deranged; we’re determined!
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Re: “Trump Derangement Syndrome”

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I've come to the decision that I could never vote for Turnip as I do not trust anyone that doesn't drink and doesn't like dogs - I could overlook the former, but not the latter. Not that I would ever consider voting for the puke, just reinforcement of feelings. LOL
"Being Republican is more than a difference of opinion - it's a character flaw." "COVID can fix STUPID!"
The greatest, most aggrieved mistake EVER made in USA was electing DJT as POTUS.

Re: “Trump Derangement Syndrome”

11
You realize, of course, that the correct definition of "Trump Derangement Syndrome" is "rational sanity"?
Because you have to live in a racist, fascist fantasy alternate universe to believe and believe in Mario's Mushroom as he has NO redeeming qualities.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: “Trump Derangement Syndrome”

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My Trump Derangement is in full bloom today as I await my test cell phone national emergency message from the Grand Puke. If ever there was a prez that would ABUSE the system, this turd would be it. I can only imagine the "emergency" calls we'll all be getting for a week before Nov. 6, 2018.
"Being Republican is more than a difference of opinion - it's a character flaw." "COVID can fix STUPID!"
The greatest, most aggrieved mistake EVER made in USA was electing DJT as POTUS.

Re: “Trump Derangement Syndrome”

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I wonder if the "message" will say "Lock Her Up!"? Weren't the Mississippi red-necks, er, red hats at his "Nuremberg Rally" last night chanting "lock her up!" about Christine Blasey Ford?

Fascism isn't coming to our government--it's already running it.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: “Trump Derangement Syndrome”

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The Republicans have become the Party of Massive Tax breaks to the rich and privatize Party.
The Democrats have become lockstep corporatists...there's a few that that still have a conscience and a backbone.
Most recently and an affront to Democracy, politicians who want to run for an elected office, the Dems are forcing them swear allegiance to the Gun Prohibitionist Consortium.
Our "President" The Great Orange Usurper since day one has exhibited socially unacceptable behavior and the emotional maturity of a spoiled-rotten 4 year-old
He's not only unfit to govern, he's also mentally ill...a sexist, racist, soulless neanderthal choad with the social graces of a Cape Buffalo.

Adult males are black or charcoal grey, the hair is short and course.
They have large heads and thick necks on their massive bodies with short limbs.
The horns grow from the thick bosses on the forehead.

Notice the resemblance and facial expression!
Cape Buffalo.jpg
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable.

Re: “Trump Derangement Syndrome”

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MaxwellG wrote: Wed Oct 03, 2018 9:35 am The Republicans have become the Party of Massive Tax breaks to the rich and privatize Party.
The Democrats have become lockstep corporatists...there's a few that that still have a conscience and a backbone.
Most recently and an affront to Democracy, politicians who want to run for an elected office, the Dems are forcing them swear allegiance to the Gun Prohibitionist Consortium.
Our "President" The Great Orange Usurper since day one has exhibited socially unacceptable behavior and the emotional maturity of a spoiled-rotten 4 year-old
He's not only unfit to govern, he's also mentally ill...a sexist, racist, soulless neanderthal choad with the social graces of a Cape Buffalo.

Adult males are black or charcoal grey, the hair is short and course.
They have large heads and thick necks on their massive bodies with short limbs.
The horns grow from the thick bosses on the forehead.

Notice the resemblance and facial expression!
Thanks for ruining future nature programs. I’ll never look at Cape Buffalo the same. Or turtles either.
5B29BB5A-BB1B-40D5-B192-B49F024FD870.jpeg
This confirmation will move forward!
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Re: “Trump Derangement Syndrome”

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I felt hopeless until Doug Jones won. When the Virginia House of Delegates kept a Republican majority by drawing a name due to tie voting, I decided my vote might actually matter here.

Voting is not common because the choices here are overwhelmingly white male Right-Wing versus white male "Center Right" (aka Republican Lite). No real choice for many of us. This year is different and I hope that is a trend.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: “Trump Derangement Syndrome”

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I'm a rock, politically. Since I've been voting, the Right has fallen completely off the edge into la-la land.

The GOP today resembles the personality cult of Kim Jong Un much more than it does the GOP of a generation ago. Principles? Gone. Values Voters? Flaming hypocrites. Deficit hawks? What deficit? Commie-haters? How about Russkie Lovers? Nazi-haters? Let's all embrace White Pride, everyone! Don't believe me? Ask any old-school conservative which direction the GOP has gone. I defy anyone to argue the left has moved a fraction as much. Obamacare? As it was passed, it was modeled on a Republican framework, for crissake.

I have moved further to the left in one respect: As a result of a lifetime of witnessing first-hand the growing economic inequity and the stagnation of wages vis-a-vis continuing worker productivity; I have become convinced of the inability of our current economic or political systems to meaningfully correct economic inequality. I consider that an evidentiary shift in outlook.
"I am not a number, I am a free man!" - Number Six

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Re: “Trump Derangement Syndrome”

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I haven't seen white nationalism so popular since I have been alive. In the recent past, people like that were ashamed and wore hoods. It has always been there, but not so brazen and popular in decades. As the rest of the world deals with the same issue, I wonder how it will turn out this time around?
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

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