When you think about it, Democrats serve a purpose. Not a rational purpose, but a psychological one.
Democrats are the party of “I’m here to rescue you.”
Young people have only seen Democratic hatred and hostility directed against President Trump. But that hatred and hostility have always been there.
My memory goes back to President Reagan, in the 1980s. It was the exact same thing. And it was the same with the hapless Bushes. And it would have been the same with a President Romney or a President McCain (although now, in death, they revere him.)
In psychology, we talk about “codependence”. Most don’t know what the term means, but it has a meaning. It means there are two types of dysfunctional people. One type needs to rescue. And the other needs to be rescued.
The professional Democratic career politicians need to be rescuers. They do it for power, attention, or even some disfigured sense of mission and purpose.
But here’s the rub. If you NEED to rescue others, then you also NEED a villain. That’s why Democrats don’t merely provide counterarguments to their opponents. That’s why they don’t make the case FOR socialism, FOR a weak defense, FOR totally open borders, FOR political correctness and all the rest.
There’s no case to be made. And I think they know it.
But there IS a case to be made for rescuing people who wish to be rescued. Why? Because millions, sadly, falsely believe somebody is coming to rescue them from all the unhappiness in their lives. And if you create a villain as the cause and source of all your problems, then you’ve set the stage – as a power-hungry politician – to be the rescuer.
Democrats LOVE having Donald Trump as their villain. And no matter how much they scream otherwise, they will so miss him when he’s gone.
Democrats would not exist if we did not have a sizable number of people who wish to be rescued. They are the ones who fall prey to the toxic illusion of “the benevolent state” which — as Frederic Bastiat once brilliantly observed — is the great fiction where everybody tries to live at the expense of everyone else.
Democrats are hostile to their opponents because they’re hostile to the idea that others will not need them. If others do not need them, then they lose their power. They also lose the false sense of virtue that comes from feeling you’re helping others when, in reality, you’re actually hurting them.
Like other therapists, I have seen this cycle play out thousands of times in dysfunctional families and marriages. It’s more disheartening than I can say to watch this play out on a national scale.
And yet there it is. America has so much to lose. And if we end up losing it all, you can better believe the Democrats will go down screaming that it was all Trump’s fault — or whomever the particular villain of the day is.
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