The Democrats are way off their professed sensitivity with their agendized treatment of mental illnesses in order to promote political goals. This National Bullying Prevention Month, as consumers, we should all be asking Democrats to STOP exploiting and casually using mental illness as a tool for discrediting President Trump.
Democrats must now consider that backwards is not forwards. Mental illness has provided our country with some of the worst and most shameful examples of what can be "done" to people based on the decision by someone that they are mentally ill. Hatred of Donald Trump does not give Democrats a legitimate justification for dragging us back to those times.
Read the story of Willowbrook "State School," in New York, not closed until 1987 though its abuses were well documented in 1965. Read about mandatory sterilization, up to and including such practices in California through 2010 and not banned until 2014. Read about current deprivations of rights for individuals labeled "mentally ill."
That's what we should be reading, recalling and citing when we listen to Democrats using their authority to "form a panel" to assess President Trump, [Sharon Begley, 8/16/2017, "Democrats in Congress Explore Creating an Expert Panel on Trump's Mental Health"].
That's what we should think about when we hear political foes thoughtlessly use terms like "fitness" in the mental sense, of the President. That's what we should think about when the bullies cry free speech or when "artists" depict assassinating President Trump, as was done in Shakespeare in the Park this summer, or when Trump tombstones are popularized.
It started during the campaign, the endless and cringe-worthy use of the word "crazy," often accompanied by snickering offered by Hillary Clinton regarding Trump. It was at first surprising, after all the Democratic "sensitivity," that has protectively twisted the English language into their own lingo including banning pronouns describing gender to relabeling groups of illegal immigrants as undocumented, was thoughtlessly using the derogatory term, "crazy."
But the Democrats have been unrelenting in their conscious use and exploitation of mental illness in order to attack, discredit and possibly even remove the President of the United States. This is no small matter for consumers, 20 percent of whom have mental issues according to healthcare.gov's 2014 estimates. After all, not only CAN they do it to us if they do it to the President, but they've already TRIED to do it to us.
For those who recall Obama's 2016 gun law proposals, this marginalizing of those with mental illness is proving to be the new go-to strategy for Democrats whose bullying based on mental illness seemingly has no bounds.
After the endless but largely failed efforts to mislabel President Trump as a Nazi, Dems seem to have doubled-down on their attacks on President Trump for mental illness. They do this with innuendo, unsubstantiated assertions and outright accusations, all using the "language" of mental health to achieve political ends.
First, the innuendo, like the NPR interview with Ean Osnos, a "New Yorker" writer where Osnos stated that it was clear to him that there have been "formal conversation" on "…whether this president is fit for office…" (NPR interview May 4, 2017, Trump's Fitness To Serve Is 'Officially Part Of The Discussion In Congress.'
Second, unsubstantiated assertions, such as those discussed March 7, 2017, in an article by Samuel Breidbart and Vinay Nayak in "Time," which began with publication of assertions of Trump's "mental issues" and only then admitted they were all "controversial armchair diagnoses."
Third, using the mental health laws to achieve political gain, as discussed in The NY Times in an article by Peter Kramer and Sally Satel, August 29, 2017, explaining the process for getting rid of Trump based on his mental health, "Who Decides Whether Trump Is Unfit to Govern?"
Surely, even the most adamant new Democrats can perceive the danger of belonging to a party that embraces every cause célèbre frequently trying to appear gentle, sensitive and open-minded, but harshly, mercilessly and without concern disparaging those with mental illness simply to stick it to the President.
It's more frightening when we consider Obamacare and the way the Obama government partnered with insurance companies to steer people's health options, including "paid for prevention," the low-hanging fruit of checkups that has resulted in forced wellness, which I discussed here in "Obamacare's Forced Wellness," on January 27, 2016.
It's a method of encouraging defensive medicine, the practice whereby providers run any and all tests to protect themselves without consideration of patient discomfort, risk or jeopardy. It's also been used as a jumping off point for making such "screenings" mandatory, including last January's push for mandatory depression screenings during and after pregnancy.
Once entrenched, the bad policy of Obamacare was used by the Obama Administration to piggyback and back-door another bad policy, as for instance when Dems floated their ideas for gun control through mental health screenings. (See here, Obama's Vile Plan for Mental Illness: Gun Control through Suicide Control, 1/10/2016).
Consumers must not tolerate this exploitation of the label of mental illness, for the sake of those with mental illness and for our own sakes.
For Dems it's an insensitivity that belies their claims of sensitivity that should not only be politically damning but exhibits elements of, dare we say using our own armchair diagnosis, "dissociative disorder" and its accompanying "alternation of two or more distinct personality states," that endangers every person subject to their governance. More than hypocrisy, the conscious pretense of Democratic claims of sensitivity and morality while doing otherwise, Democrats act as if they truly are unaware of their double standards and distinct behaviors.
It was evident with Hillary Clinton, who even as she preached tolerance and inclusion singled out white males, those who disagreed with her and President Trump himself for name-calling, ridicule and ostracism.
It is evident with Democrat Chuck Schumer who "cried" over illegal immigration proposals, flanked by representative "Muslims" divorcing himself from his own 2009 comments, "The American people are fundamentally pro legal immigration and anti illegal immigration." It is evident in his defense of Obamacare even as HE enjoys exemption from the law.
From sputtering to posturing to ranting, armchair diagnosticians could persuasively argue that Nancy Pelosi should be subjected to a mental health assessment.
Then there's the venomous incitement to violence by the "peace-loving" Dems who have done everything from create Donald Trump tombstones to tolerate if not encourage rampant assassination verbiage.
Beyond the gotcha mentality of calling our President unfit because you disagree with him, this dangerous, reckless and loosey-goosey use of terms like unstable, unfit and "crazy," is unbecoming in anyone and downright intolerable from a party that asserts its humanity and sensitivity even as it jeers, labels and name-calls those with different opinions.
For National Bullying Prevention Month, where are the Dems fighting for the mistreatment of those with mental illness in prisons? Where are the battles AGAINST stigmatizing mental illness beginning with the out of control jump to diagnoses about our President? Where is the sensitivity against derogatory labeling when it comes to using the word "crazy"?
Whether it's casual mislabeling, agendized policymaking like gun control, or using the diagnosis to deprive people of civil rights, the Democrats' behavior is NOT for our good and their constituency should let them know it.
