Since the moment Donald Trump threw his hat in the ring for the Presidential race, he has provoked the most hysterical reaction from his detractors. This hysteria has run so hot, that Trump’s supporters have even given it a name. They call it Trump Derangement Syndrome or TDS.
We know that the Left are becoming generally unhinged, but this reaction was next level. Who, or what, caused this mass hysteria you may have wondered?
Take a bow…. Donald J Trump.
Right from the get-go, Trump has used his Twitter account to stir his opponents into a frenzy. His language and style have been so coarse and seemingly thoughtless that they were guaranteed to provoke outrage amongst the unhinged lunatics who make up his most vocal opponents.
But, although Trump’s style may be coarse, there is no lack of thought which goes into his tweets. The style of his Tweets is meticulously crafted to create maximum offence and outrage from those who hate him most.
Why would he do that? Every other mainstream Republican (as well as Conservative politicians around the rest of the World) have tippy-toed around the sensibilities of these professional outrage mobs.
Accepted wisdom has been, that you must do whatever it takes to appease these mobs, whilst attempting to hang on to whatever shreds of Conservative principles you can somehow defend.
Little wonder that the Overton Window has been relentlessly ratcheted to the far-Left for decades now.
But then along came Trump to crash the party, scattering Leftists and Rinos from one end of the spectrum to the other. The Donald took the rule book and tore it into pieces, beating everyone using his own rules.
So how did he do it? Why does he delight in pushing the buttons of people who are literally screaming for his blood?
The first thing to know about Trump, is that he is a master manipulator and strategist. He is so far ahead of the game, that his opponents are invariably left scrambling to catch up.
Remember when his opponents used to constantly try to portray him as stupid? Remember this photo that was always circulating on Facebook and Twitter with some type of derogatory comments plastered across it, denigrating Trump’s intelligence?
I haven’t seen it around much for a while because even his opponents are starting to realise that they have been played.
Politics in the Anglosphere is a game played in the political Centre. Voters have little appetite for extremists of any persuasion.
What Trump continually does, is to needle his opponents by denigrating them, and finding the buttons to push.
The aim is to provoke them into radical positions and actions which are abhorrent to most sensible Americans. Have you noticed how extreme almost the entire Democrat nominee line up is these days? Most of them make Bernie Sanders look like Colonel Sanders.
But although Trump uses an abrasive style to provoke his opponents, he ensures that the thrust of his policies are entirely sensible.
How many times have you heard centrist or independent voters bemoan Trump’s use of his Twitter account, whilst admitting that his policies are actually quite agreeable?
Trump knows, that come election day, when these people are putting the cross in the box, that they will forgive him his crass Tweets and the barbed backhanders to his opponents. What they will remember is the actual policies that he enacted.
So, whilst his style is tolerated by the centre, and adored by his rusted-on followers, it sends his opponents into fits of rage.
Once enveloped in echo chambers of red mist, his opponents lose touch with reality and lash out in ways that shred their credibility faster than Nancy Pelosi shredded the State of the Union address.
What would cause such an experienced career politician to do such a stupid thing?
Trump Derangement Syndrome is the answer.
Who infected her with this disease and stoked the fire at every opportunity? Donald J Trump, with his Twitter account of course.
A good example of Trump at work was an interview I saw the other day, which I think was on Fox or some other friendly channel. The interviewer asked for his thoughts on Michael Bloomberg. “Short,” was Trump’s immediate answer.
“He asked to have a box to stand on during the debates, but that is unfair, none of the other candidates had a box to stand on.”
What other serious politician would say such a thing? Clearly Bloomberg is very short – and obviously very conscious of the fact. I didn’t actually know that he was short until Trump pointed it out.
I certainly didn’t know that he had asked to stand on a box during the debate. Millions of others probably weren’t aware of it either.
Can you imagine how furious Bloomberg would have been at this jibe? Yet Trump cleverly twisted it to sound like Bloomberg was demanding unfair advantage in asking for a box to stand on.
That’s how Trump does it. He will shove that bug up Bloomberg’s backside and keep twisting at every opportunity until “Little Mike” snaps and makes a major mistake.
Then Trump will shake his head and sound all Presidential and sympathetic as Bloomberg is wheeled off by his minders.
The one exception to this, is Bernie Sanders. Although he makes it clear that Bernie’s policies belong in the dustbin of history, Trump always shows deference to him.
He deliberately courts Bernie’s supporters, even though they were originally the furthest from his own. Why would he do that?
Well, of course Trump knows that Bernie supporters will never vote for him. That is not his intention. What The Donald wants to ensure, is that Bernie’s supporters won’t vote for whoever the Democratic nominee is.
In 2016, that was always going to be Hillary Clinton. She was Democrat royalty and the Mandarins in the party were never going to give an upstart like Bernie an even break.
Bernie has been stiffed by the party and Trump never tires of reminding his supporters of this fact. If Trump can persuade Bernie’s people that Clinton or Bloomberg or Biden are little better than he is, then they will stay home pulling cones come voting day and the Dems will have lost millions of potential votes.
That is how Trump rolls and those who underestimate him will find themselves splattered behind the Trump juggernaut once more come the election in November.
