Minnesota Senate Republicans have introduced a measure that would classify “Trump derangement syndrome” as an actual mental illness.
The lawmakers are getting criticized by people who likely suffer from the condition and from those who recognize that it is essentially wasting taxpayer money to perform a stunt.
The bill defines the term “mental illness” as meaning “an organic disorder of the brain or a clinically significant disorder of thought, mood, perception, orientation, memory, or behavior that is detailed in a diagnostic codes list published by the commissioner, and that seriously limits a person’s capacity to function in primary aspects of daily living such as personal relations, living arrangements, work, and recreation.”
The measure also defines “Trump derangement syndrome” as:
[T]he acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal persons that is in reaction to the policies and presidencies of President Donald J. Trump. Symptoms may include Trump-induced general hysteria, which produces an inability to distinguish between legitimate policy differences and signs of psychic pathology in President Donald J. Trump's behavior.
According to the bill, this condition can manifest with “verbal expressions of intense hostility” toward the president and “overt acts of aggression and violence against anyone supporting President Donald J. Trump or anything that symbolizes President Donald J. Trump.”
Some folks were not amused by the introduction of the bill, according to CBS News.
Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy pushed back, calling the bill "wasteful, frivolous and shameful," and called it "possibly the worst bill in Minnesota history."
"If it is meant as a joke, it is a waste of staff time and taxpayer resources that trivializes serious mental health issues. If the authors are serious, it is an affront to free speech and an expression of a dangerous level of loyalty to an authoritarian president. The authors should be ashamed, and the citizens we're hearing from are rightfully outraged," Murphy said.
Minnesota’s Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson addressed the backlash, saying that “Senate Republicans have always supported mental health funding, trying to make sure that there are resources for that.”
He further noted that his Democratic colleagues “have been railroading our committees by talking about Trump more than they have been talking about the deficit, the problems that we have here in the state of Minnesota.”
Johnson argued that Minnesota’s lawmakers should “get focused on what’s important, prioritizing Minnesotans.”
Of course, this was an obvious way to troll the left. I agree that it is a waste of taxpayer resources and a silly stunt.
But this does not mean that Trump derangement syndrome isn’t a thing. You likely have friends and family members who suffer from this condition, which causes otherwise rational people to completely lose all sense of rationality when it comes to the Orange Man What Is Bad™.
Indeed, I’d go further than the lawmakers went in defining TDS. You know someone has the condition when:
- They bring up Trump incessantly, even when he is not the focal point of the conversation.
- They exhibit extreme outrage or distress from the mere mention of his name or policies.
- They see the president as the root of all negative occurrences.
- They are willing to cut off friends and family members over Trump.
While it may not be an actual clinically recognized condition, it does exist, and it explains much of what we have seen in the media and among politicians. It has permeated aspects of our culture to the point that it is even breaking up marriages.
There are all kinds of jokes I can (and have) made about those who suffer from TDS. But it is more serious matter than it might seem. It also reflects a reality that I have stressed numerous times: The government is far too bloated and far too intrusive in our lives.
If the size and scope of the federal government were closer to what the Founding Fathers envisioned, it would not matter as much who is running it. Indeed, there would be no political derangement syndromes because the state would not have as much power to affect our lives. The problem is, Americans have not quite realized this yet.
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