Trump's Insanity: A Rich American Political Tradition
Insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops.
~ Mortimer Brewster, Arsenic and Old Lace
Does Donald Trump remind you of Teddy Brewster, the crazy cousin in Arsenic and Old Lace who thinks he's President Theodore Roosevelt? Dressed in African expedition fatigues and brandishing a sword, he loudly storms up the stairs thinking he's attacking San Juan Hill, leaving all present in a temporary state of shock and confusion. Batshit crazy. Nonetheless, everyone humors him. He gets away with his grandiose delusions because nobody puts on the brakes. Just as with Trump. So far, anyway.
The question of Trump's mental stability has been gaining attention of late.
This fall, 27 prominent psychiatrists and mental health experts published a book, "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President." It is a runaway bestseller. They sent a follow-up letter to every member of Congress stating,
As Trump feels increasingly walled in, his mental stability is likely to suffer and hence also public safety. Mental impairment and criminal-mindedness are not mutually exclusive; not only can they happen at the same time, when combined, these two characteristics become particularly dangerous. Trump has shown marked signs of impairment and psychological disability under ordinary circumstances, hardly able to cope with basic criticism or unflattering news. Presumably, additional stressors will make his condition worse. So far the signs have been almost too predictable.
Just some of the signs that have raised red flags include: verbal aggressiveness, boasting about sexual assaults, inciting violence in others, an attraction to violence and powerful weapons and the taunting of hostile nations with nuclear power. Specific traits that are highly associated with violence include: impulsivity, recklessness, paranoia, a loose grip on reality and poor understanding of consequences, a lack of empathy and belligerence toward others, rage reactions and a constant need to demonstrate power. Such traits interfere with the ability to think rationally, to take in needed information or advice, to weigh consequences and to make sound, logical decisions based on reality.
They conclude, "We warn that anyone as mentally unstable as Mr. Trump simply should not be entrusted with the life-and-death powers of the presidency."
But we are entrusting him. The question is, for how long? Till Pyongyang and Seoul are smoldering ruins and a million Koreans killed? Till the nation is so consumed by constitutional crises as to be locked in utter paralysis? Till the Russians have sabotaged our democracy unopposed to the point that Americans welcome autocratic rule?
Donald Trump isn't the first occupant of the White House with mental health issues. James Madison, John Quincy Adams, Franklin Pierce and Abraham Lincoln all suffered from major depressive disorders. It is believed that ten presidents suffered from depression. Theodore Roosevelt was bipolar, as was Lyndon Johnson (LBJ had a penchant for exposing his genitals before others). Woodrow Wilson suffered from a generalized anxiety disorder. Trump's idol, Andrew Jackson, had an out-of-control temper that got him into over 100 duels. Jackson was wounded so often during his frequent duels that it was said he "rattled like a bag of marbles" and regularly coughed up blood. On the last day of his presidency, Jackson confessed that he had but two regrets: he "had been unable to shoot Henry Clay or to hang John C. Calhoun."
Mental health experts believe that about half the presidents between George Washington and Richard M. Nixon suffered from some sort of psychiatric disorder.
Politics attracts delusionary individuals with outsized egos. And it's amazing how far these people get in buffaloing the masses.
Among his many memorable pronouncements, Former Ohio congressman James Traficant said the following on the floor of the House of Representatives:
Madam Speaker, it started with the training bra and then it came to the push-up bra; the support bra, the Wonder bra, the super bra. There is even a smart bra. Now, if that is not enough to prop up your curiosity, there is now a new bra. It is called the holster bra, the gun bra. That is right, a brassiere to conceal a hidden handgun. Unbelievable. What is next? A maxi-girdle to conceal a stinger missile? Beam me up. I advise all men in America against taking women to drive-in movies who may end up getting shot in a passionate embrace. I yield back all those plain old Maidenform brassieres and chain link pantyhose.
Sporting a pompadour toupee and retro suits, Republican Traficant hobnobbed with mobsters and defended two Nazi war criminals from being deported. His infatuated constituents nonetheless returned him to Congress for nine terms - until he was convicted of bribery, tax fraud and racketeering and sentenced to eight years in prison. Psychologists believe Traficant suffered from antisocial personality disorder.
Vitriolic GOP ex-congressman Bob Dornan physically assaulted fellow representative Tom Downey on the floor of the House, and suggested any men in the pro-choice movement "are either men trapped in women's bodies...or younger guys who are like camp followers looking for easy sex." Running for re-election, he charged, "Every lesbian spear chucker in this country is hoping I get defeated." Dornan's wife, Sallie, claimed in four separate divorce actions that her husband had physically abused her and subjected her to "extreme cruelty." She said in an affidavit that Dornan had pulled her through the house by the hair and threatened her with a revolver while pouring a quart of milk over her head.
It was a woman, Loretta Sanchez, who finally unseated Dornan - but only after Orange County Californians had enthusiastically returned him to office for nine terms. Experts believe Dornan also was afflicted with antisocial personality disorder.
Scott DesJarlais was elected to the House in 2010 on the Tea Party wave. The medical doctor from rural Tennessee ran on a family values platform, railing righteously against abortion and adultery.
Turns out, however, he impregnated one of his patients in an adulterous affair - then pressured her to get an abortion.
But there’s more…
The congressman's 700-page divorce-trial testimony reveals he admitted to affairs with three co-workers, a drug rep, and two other patients. He also confessed to encouraging his wife to get two abortions before they were married.
When confronted with the evidence during his re-election campaign, he denounced it as "false, personal attacks." When that didn’t work, DesJardins declared, "I know God's forgiven me. I simply ask my fellow Christians and constituents to do the same." Politico declared him “Hypocrite of the Year.”
Apparently getting the good word from the Lord about Scott, the god-fearing citizens of Tennessee’s fourth congressional district sent him back to Congress for a fourth term last year.
Diagnosis? How about nuts?
So, here's where we get to the crux of the problem: Trump is nuts. Everybody knows it. Twenty-seven of the nation's leading shrinks can't be wrong. It's a favorite topic of cloakroom conversation among members of Congress, who cluck worriedly, but do nothing about it. His vocal defenders and apologists - the ones now beating the drum for dismissal of that out-of-control, treasonous maniac, Robert Mueller - are as wacko as he is. The patients are now in charge of the asylum. The crazy train is headed off the tracks. America is in trouble. The antidote? Article 2, Section 4, or Article 25 of the Constitution. Time to choose one. Lock The Donald in the attic with Teddy Brewster.
Before it's too late.