When An Obsession Becomes A Compulsion, It’s Time To Seek Help

The Left's obsession with President Trump is irrational, extreme, abnormal, and dangerous, and there is a serious need for professional help.

In the following, I will attempt to explain the unrestrained, malicious behavior of the liberal left toward former President Trump, his administration, and supporters, and the disturbing reason for this.

The past five years have revealed a dangerous and troubling evolution or devolution, depending on your life experience, in the minds of a large segment of the American people across the ideological and political divide. This especially involves Democrats, the media, entertainment, professional sports, and Silicon Valley.

What at first was thought to be possibly a brief interlude, so to speak, which would eventually subside and pass, has turned into what can best be described as a serious and dangerous disorder, and the main cause of this condition is the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump. Since his ascension to the presidency, Mr. Trump has had a profound and deeply personal effect on most of the population, both his supporters and detractors. There was no honeymoon period; it was either love him or hate him, and whatever your feelings are of the former president, his presence is as prominent now as when he held office, and it is having a serious and compromising effect and is driving his enemies off the deep end.

We all lived through the five years of daily, unrestrained criticisms and insults of President Trump, his administration, family, and supporters. There was a groundswell, and the liberal left could not contain their contempt and disdain. It was constant, every minute, hour, day, month, and year. Mr. Trump's detractors were so immersed in their frustration and hatred that their behavior began to take on a surreal-like irrational reality. With few exceptions, wherever you looked, whatever you heard or read, it was an all-out assault on a president; this could not be normal.

It occurred to me perhaps what is happening goes far beyond the ordinary dislike of a person that many of us must deal with. Having studied the subject, according to psychoanalytic theory, someone who displays an obsession and a compulsion toward something or someone, reflects what is considered a maladaptive and unresolved conflict from the early stages of his or her development. And that it represents an unconscious struggle for control over drives and servile urges that is considered unacceptable by normal and conventional standards at the conscious level; this is commonly referred to as Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, OCD.

Recall back in the year 2000, Bush Derangement Syndrome, which represented the feeling of those who harbored disdain and contempt for the 43rd president. This idiom seemed to have somewhat disappeared and was not so much in use during the Obama presidency. I believe that was because those on the right do not hate and despise others as do the left. When President Trump took office, this behavior reached new heights, and something more sinister happened. As president, he revealed to the nation and the world the disorder and demons that Democrats and the left harbor, those that lie deep within the psyche were released into the light of day. We all possess the capacity to do wrong and sin, but good, virtuous, and decent people have the sensibilities that are able to contain the demons within.

I am not a licensed psychotherapist, and what I write here in this article is not meant to make light of, pass aspersions, or revile in another's misery. Over the years I have come in contact with many people, and have had to deal with an assortment of issues, situations, and confrontations, but I have never encountered anything like what has been and is still taking place in America, and the obsession and compulsion of the left toward one man, a president.

When the Biden administration came into power, without hesitation or any consideration of what the repercussions might be, they began immediately to reverse the Trump policies. This irrational behavior has caused tremendous domestic hardship and grief; the loss of thousands of jobs, a chaotic and dangerous crisis at the southern border, pandering to foreign adversaries and enemies of America. This administration may be power-hungry, as many believe, but it goes deeper. They are out of control, and I believe do not realize the extent of their abnormal behavior because of the hate they harbor.

There is little doubt that the effects former President Trump has had on the minds and lives of the liberal left are nothing short of disordered. He has been out of office almost six months, and yet for whatever reason, the constant drumbeat of inflammatory rhetoric toward the former president has not subsided. His name is mentioned daily in editorials, letters to the editor, articles, cable and network news, and the internet. In one particular tabloid, there can be found in approximately 20 pages of news, the name Trump mentioned 25 times, and all were critical and negative.

It has gotten so intense and irrational that now some in the media accuse Trump, when in office, of being the cause of their inaccurate reporting and getting things wrong. Several have stated that although now out of office he has been proven right on some matters, but because in their opinion he constantly lied, they had no reason to take him seriously or believe anything he said while in office. That is not only irrational, but is a betrayal of journalistic integrity, standards of excellence, and it is not normal.