Reverse TDS

I understand Evangelicals voting for Trump, at least I think I do. Hey, voting is a messy business, and you never get your ideal choice. In 2016, as in all previous elections, people voted for one or the other because that one seemed less harmful than the other one. We might even get a few good things out of it: judges, etc.

All that makes sense to me, but something more is going on, something we've seen from the start, and something that has continued apace ever since. If the lesser evil rationale really explained the Evangelical or generally the conservative vote for Trump, what you would see in the course of the man's presidency would be support for the good things (the judges, etc.) and a robust critique of the not so good. But what you in fact see is an apparent unwillingness (even an inablilty, perhaps) to criticize the man, which in effect causes others to think that, well, you kind of worship the guy!

This is something I've seen time and again and it still amazes me. These people will excoriate a Democratic congresswoman for supposed antisemitism, but when an undeniably antisemitic Tweet comes from their hero, not a word. And if you bring it up, they excoriate you as an undercover lib and then change the subject (my repeated personal experience supports this observation).

One ardent Trump-supporter I know likes to say that the "Never Trumpers" just don't understand. Maybe so, but what I think she and other T-admirers don't understand is that when you put the man on a pedestal, above criticism, so that everything he says and does is treated as a positive, even if it means you have to call white black and black white, or suddenly decide that deficits don't matter and trade wars are HUGELY beneficial, even if you have to completely ignore the provocative Tweets and lunatic declarations, well that looks for all the world like hero-worship. Oh, I know they'd all deny it, but from these deniers I've heard not a whit of criticism of Trump, ever.

Oh, I know this sort of thing happens. Obama partisans did the same thing. They seemed to idolize their man, and ignored inconvenient truths or changed the subject whenever these were brought up. So it's a historic phenomenon, repeated with each presidency by true believers. It's a kind of reverse derangement syndrome.*

To take a recent example, the other day the president retweeted something that originated with Wayne Allyn Root. Root tweeted Trump was "the second coming of God." Trump thanked him and retweeted it proudly. Now, maybe Root was just joking, or using over-statement to make his point, and maybe Trump was too. But thought experiment here: let's say some nutjob on Twitter said the same think about Obama back in 2012, and Obama with a straight face retweeted it. Can you just imagine the criticism from Evangelicals then? You can bet it would have been a quite different response than . . . silence.

No one admits outright that they are treating their preferred political candidate like a hero on a pedestal, a man above criticism. As I've said, Obama's partisans did the same for him. For many, it's just a political tactic (never concede anything, not even a minor point, to your political enemies). But in addition to these political tacticians, for whom truth is less important than winning, there are also the True Believers. They don't ever criticize, because they quite literally see no evil where their hero is concerned.

Conversely, when anyone does have anything to say that reflects badly upon him (not even necessarily a direct criticism), that person is assumed to be craven political partisans, only saying it to sully the reputation of the hero. You need an example? There are thousands. A bunch of economists predict an increased likelihood of a recession. And so the Trumpbots go into overdrive. Not by looking at the evidence presented by the economists and showing how it is being misinterpreted or how some other more positive evidence is being overlooked, but by defaming them as economists. They re in the bag for the Dems, just trying to scare people! Isn't it obvious?

The trick is to make such accusations repeatedly, but never ever bother with actual evidence. Trump's chorus of supporters practice this tactic incessantly. Ad Hominem attacks without a slice of evidence. Everyone else is the partisan, not them.

Again, even an occasional criticism would be a normal thing, a predictable thing when two rational people are having a talk about Trump (or any president). But the lack of any open criticism whatsoever is, it seems to me, a telling sign. The ad hominem attacks, a telling sign. The evidence-free assertions, a telling sign. In the fervor and haste of the moment everyone now and then reverts to these tactics, but when it's all they've got, it tells you something.

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*Presidential derangement syndromes are usually perceived as "con," not "pro." In other words, Bush Derangement Syndrome was an undue and vehement hatred of George W. Bush. Trump Derangement Syndrome describes the same phenomenon toward the current president. But I think it can also be "pro." Suchan undue admiration for the president as to make any even slight criticism seem inadmissible.