"un-American"

I've had a lot to say about the reaction to the election of Donald Trump (e.g., recent examples can be found here, here, and here). With every passing week, that reaction gets more extreme. The Trump Derangement Syndrome crowd is blinded by outrage, wailing about "treason," "threats to Democracy," "fascism," and of course the old standbys—"racism and misogyny." Reaching new heights of hyperbole, they have compared Trump to Hitler, his policies to those of the Nazis, and his administration to the Gestapo. They seem unaware that those comparisons exhibit a level of epic historical ignorance, making them sound like fools. They seem unconcerned that normal folks, upon observing their historical ignorance, might consider them to be unhinged.

Saritha Prabhu exemplifies the feelings of many people outside the TDS crowd when she writes:

I don’t much like Donald Trump and didn’t vote for him (or Hillary) in 2016, but I’ve been feeling sorry for him for about 18 months now. It feels strange feeling sorry for someone who’s a boor, a narcissist, an egomaniac, and a serial philanderer, plus the 37 other negative traits usually used to describe him. But it has something to do with the fact that he has been treated in a grossly unfair manner by the mainstream media and the political and cultural left, on a scale we’ve never seen before.

One story of the last two years is how this most alpha of alpha males has become an underdog of sorts in American politics today. Of course, you won’t find this narrative in any of the mainstream media outlets. This narrative merely exists in the minds of millions of voters who are outside the core Democratic base: those of us who are Republicans, moderates, independents, former Democrats like myself. We’ve been silently watching, listening, observing the opposition to Trump in the last eighteen months, and it’s been the most sickening thing to see, more appalling than what the right did to President Obama.

As one voter put it in an article I read a while ago, the hatred shown toward Trump has been “un-American.” I agree with that sentiment, even as I simultaneously hold the thought that Trump is not someone whose character needs defending.

Memo to the left: Know why Trump’s poll numbers have been steady or rising slightly in spite of the invective you’ve been pouring on him every minute of every day? It’s because the economy is booming, and also because most Americans are fair-minded and think that even a flawed sinner like Trump doesn’t deserve to be figuratively kicked every day in a manner that’s often dishonest, exaggerated or out-of-context.

Something occurred to me as I read Prabhu's last sentence. Working people and minorities in this country often feel that they're "figuratively kicked every day in a manner that’s often dishonest, exaggerated or out-of-context." Could that be the reason why so many working people have gravitated to Trump and why recent polling indicates that an increasing number of African Americans and Latinos are pro-Trump? Sure, a lot of it has to do with a spectacularly good economy and job market, lower taxes and more opportunity—but what's wrong with that?

In its unhinged rage, the Left is underestimating Donald Trump. The historical record indicates that they may very well take the House in November and will celebrate their "tsunami" along with all of their trained hamsters in the media. But if their outrage meter goes from 10 to 11 to 12 to 13 by the time 2020 comes around, and if they decide to enact impeachment proceedings over the next two years, they may get hit by another tsunami, and this one won't be the kind they'll celebrate.

UPDATE:
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I suspect that another aspect of Trump's steady rise in the polls is the perceived unfairness of the Meuller investigation. Deep down, I also suspect that the TDS crowd knows nothing will come of it, that the accusations are both ridiculous and politically motivated, and that knowing that, their rage is amplified by their frustration in not having an impeachable offense to pin on the president. Chris Buskirk comments:

The Mueller investigation is going nowhere because he has nothing and, deep down, Democrats and their anti-Trump Republican fellow travelers and enablers know that, too. If he did, he’d have produced it already. At a minimum, he would have leaked it to an eager, compliant press corps. But he doesn’t and he hasn’t.

This strikes fear in the hearts of sober Democrat strategists who realize the party has spent nearly two years and all of its political capital investing in a fantasy. The spectacle of the independent counsel poring over the president’s twitter feed to see if they could use it to support a claim of obstruction of justice on an absurdly thin and utterly novel legal theory would be comic if the stakes were not so high.

Mueller has been reduced to pursuing indictments for crimes wholly unrelated to President Trump. Paul Manafort, who briefly managed the president’s campaign, is being tried for some decade-old business deals. The 12 Russian nationals Mueller indicted in July are charged with hacking attacks against both the DNC and RNC email systems. And, by the way, since they are in Russia they will never come to trial. He also indicted 13 Russians earlier this year for their involvement in a Russian troll farm that produced some shockingly amateurish Facebook ads that at different times seemed to support every candidate running including Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Jill Stein, and Trump. Why? Because the goal of the Russian operation wasn’t a Trump victory; it was to sow social and political discord. Score one for the Russians and their accomplices in American media.

The Dems have been reduced to pin-balling, a term that implies bouncing off the walls, trying to find something—anything—that will make Donald Trump go away. If it isn't "collusion," or "obstruction, it must be that Trump is insane and should be removed from office under the 25th Amendment. None of that will work, but instead of backing off and finding policies and programs that actually might improve things for average Americans, they rage on. Oh ... BTW ... actually implementing policies and programs that improve things for average Americans is exactly what the insane colluder and obstructor in-chief has accomplished. And that reality along with irrefutable facts and metrics to back it up, makes the Dems rage even more.