Liberals have to avoid Trump Derangement Syndrome

[yallerdawg]

Fareed Zakaria defends THAT comment - "From the response on the left, you would have thought I had just endorsed Trump for pope" - and reminds us of 'the bigger picture.'

Source: Washington Post, by Fareed Zakaria

I didn’t really believe that there was such a thing as Trump Derangement Syndrome — hatred of President Trump so intense that it impairs people’s judgment. It’s not that I didn’t notice the harsh, unyielding language against him — I’ve said a few tough things myself — but that throughout the campaign, Trump seemed to do things that justified it. Once elected, instead of calming down and acting presidential, he continued the stream of petty attacks, exaggerations and lies. His administration seemed marked by chaos and incompetence.

*****

The strikes were discreet, measured and intended to convey a signal, and yet at the same time were designed to ensure that the United States did not descend further into the Syrian civil war. In other words, they were very Obama-like. Two senior Obama officials I spoke with told me that, were Obama still president, he would have likely ordered a strike similar if not identical in scope. Presumably, those former speechwriters would then have used different words to describe the same strikes.

*****

Liberals have to avoid Trump Derangement Syndrome. If Trump pursues a policy, it cannot axiomatically be wrong, evil and dangerous. In my case, I have been pretty tough on Trump. I attacked almost every policy he proposed during the campaign. Just before the election, I called him a “cancer on American democracy” and urged voters to reject him. But they didn’t. He is now president. I believe that my job is to evaluate his policies impartially and explain why, in my view, they are wise or not.

Many of Trump’s campaign promises and policies are idiotic and unworkable. It was always likely that he would reverse them, as he has begun to do this week on several fronts. Those of us who opposed him face an important challenge. We have to ask ourselves, which would we rather see: Trump reversing himself or Trump relentlessly pursuing his campaign agenda? The first option would be good for the country and the world, though it might save Trump from an ignominious fall. The second would be a disaster for all. It raises the quandary: Do we want what’s better for America or what’s worse for Donald Trump?

Read it all at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/liberals-have-to-avoid-trump-derangement-syndrome/2017/04/13/81ff4a7a-2083-11e7-a0a7-8b2a45e3dc84_story.html?utm_campaign=063d5c2eb3-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_04_14&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Fareed%27s

[jrthin]

1. Sure. We'll stop when "analysts" stop making stupid comments. nt

[FreepFryer]

2. Because the Right was so politically wounded by "Hillary Derangement Syndrome?" Bullshit. (n/t)

[dalton99a]

3. Exhibit 1 of Zakaria's "impartial evaluation": A missile strike makes Trump presidential.

What a crappy propagandist

[yallerdawg]

7. "If we become like them - they win."

Fareed Zakaria is arguing that a "measured, appropriate response" to internationally banned chemical weapon's use on civilian populations - the same kind of response asked by Obama in 2013 - is "presidential."

If our default position remains exactly the same as how Republicans dealt with Obama and Hillary - "No, no, no! Wrong, wrong, wrong!" - then we are just as thoughtless and reactionary as they are.

[Rorey]

4. I don't have Trump Derangement Syndrome

I'm able to look at every action as a separate action, and judge it on its own merits. My problem is my very real and intense fear of what he *might* do or say because he's so impulsive and out of control and doesn't know anything.

This dick-measuring contest he's having with Kim Jong Un is scaring the hell out of me because they're both insane.

I'd probably be a lot less fearful if the main advisors to 45 weren't inexperienced and/or crazy themselves who were in their own dick-measuring contests with each other and constantly vying to by "daddy's favorite". "Daddy's favorite" is always going to be his bimbo daughter who also knows nothing, so these dick-measurers don't stand a chance anyway.

I do hate 45 very intensely. That doesn't mean that I judge each and every thing he does based on that hatred. The more I get to know about 45, the more my fears are stoked. They're not unrealistic fears. His history proves that. Just because he now has the title "President" in front of his name doesn't transform him into something he is not.

[J_William_Ryan]

5. The policies Trump pursues dont belong to Trump.

What Trump advocates is a mixed bag of failed, wrongheaded policy positions that come from various rightwing factions.

When Trump flip-flops on an issue he’ll go from one wrong policy position to another – for example, abandoning loony libertarian isolationism and embracing neo-con militaristic interventionism.

Liberals appropriately oppose Trump’s policy positions – whether it is his reckless, irresponsible hostility toward necessary, proper, and Constitutional regulatory measures or seeking to undermine the rights and protected liberties of all Americans through judicial appointments - liberals oppose Trump because he is in fact wrong on the issues, as would be the case with any other Republican president.

[yallerdawg]

8. When he makes 180 degree flip-flops...

is he still wrong?

Obama and Hillary were, according to Republicans.

Is that our default position?

[Scruffy1]

6. Ho Hum

Journalist has to fill up some space between ads.

[yallerdawg]

9. The "free press" has to be advertisement free?

Or just repeat what we want to hear?

[jehop61]

10. This is the same guy

who stated Trump became a president today after the missles were shot.

[yallerdawg]

11. You'd prefer no response to gassing people?

Zakaria merely stated this was a "normal" action that a "normal" president - like Obama - might take.

"Even a broke watch is right twice a day." Will we deny even that?

Would this make us just as extreme as the Republicans - is this what we want?