Trump Derangement Syndrome

Elisabeth Joy LaMotte practices psychotherapy in Washington, D. C. She has contributed a good op-ed column explaining that her patients are being eaten alive by the ambient political drama. And yet, she does not mention that Washington is a company town. People who do not work for the government depend on those who do. The upheavals that are inflicting government employees are direct and personal. For most Washingtonians, the soft comfortable world, a world where a government job was guaranteed lifetime employment has changed radically. From a president who believed it a sacred mission to care and tend for the bureaucracy, Washington finds itself with a president who wants to eliminate their jobs.

For Washingtonians, the Trump apocalypse is not just entertainment.

Anyway, LaMotte is seeing her clients become consumed by the circus. They are being consumed by their new habit of consuming more and more news. Whether on the left or the right, her clients have lost their bearings. They do not know what is happening and they do not like it. If anything they are looking for a return to normalcy.

LaMotte writes:

Trump voters in Washington feel like outcasts, shunned by family and friends. Democrats and Republicans who oppose the president are struggling with a sense of uncertainty. A remarkable number of clients report experiencing nightmares in which the president makes an appearance. It’s not unusual for clients to recount their personal challenges in a calm and contained tone and then burst into tears while describing their concern about our political climate.

Republicans feel shunned… for their political opinions. Democrats feel under attack by empowered Republicans. It reminds one of other parts of the country. But it also shows how much out politicians and the media have happily turned it all into a national drama.

Washingtonians have chosen to deal with it by doubling down on their addiction of news:

Clients frequently admit to excessively checking Twitter and social media, to the point that it interferes with their relationships and professional productivity. People struggling with these habits typically describe a growing sense of isolation, difficulty concentrating, increased anxiety and a feeling of distraction. A surprising number of couples in therapy are fighting with each other about their respective modes of news consumption. These couples report less sleep, growing disconnection and less sex. And this includes couples who share the same political views.

If these clients were merely becoming better informed, if they were reading the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and the Economist, they would be in far better condition. If they were immersing themselves in the business press they would gain a balanced view of the facts. They would have more information, less narrative, less drama. With that they could ward off the ambient drama in the city but the media machine that is stoking it.

LaMotte offers us a selection of comments by her clients. Read them at your peril:

“My housemate announced during a dinner party that I’m addicted to NPR. She actually asked our friends to support an intervention, I’m not kidding.”

“My boyfriend says he’s sick of me screaming at the television. I’ve started watching Fox to branch out of the so-called bubble and it’s all lies; I can’t stand it!”

“I’m disgusted — my husband says I should stop reading the paper. What is this? The 1950s? I’m an educated and informed woman; I thought that was what he loved about me.”

“I never thought I would hear my husband say he needs to stop following the news. Even worse, I never thought I would agree. But he definitely needs to step away. He says it is like political porn and he can’t stop. I’m seriously worried.”

Addiction to NPR… screaming at the television screen… denouncing Fox News as all lies… political porn.

Yes, indeed, these people could do with an intervention. They are losing their minds over political porn. It’s not a good thing.

Needless to say, people are so absorbed by the drama that they have turned off to other people. No one relates to anyone else any more. It’s not a good thing.

LaMotte continues:

Instead of keeping us grounded and self-aware, news consumption has kicked into overdrive and grown into a collective obsession that is creating barriers to relationship intimacy. The bizarre and intense news cycle is seriously messing with people’s lives. Individuals who used to say that morning coffee and reading the newspaper was a highlight of the day now describe impulsive, constant news consumption. Couples who used to enjoy Sunday mornings in bed, flipping through the paper and scrolling through news sites while sharing thoughtful conversation, now say they are concerned that one or both partners are “obsessed with” or “addicted to” the news.

What does the good therapist prescribe? She tells us:

Those experiencing tension or feelings of disconnection related to the news don’t need to take extreme measures such as indefinite news blackouts or canceling their cable and newspaper subscriptions. The goal is to recalibrate — to celebrate the underlying strength by reining it back into its proper place and replacing excessive news consumption with action.

Taking action that directs energy away from your Facebook feed and toward the underlying source of anxiety is essential. Volunteer in a local political campaign. Participate in a political activity of mutual interest with a friend or partner. Reach out to organizations that represent your values.

Her sentiments are clearly correct, but it feels a little like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. True enough, the way out of such an obsessive interest in the news is to take action… but for my part I would not advise getting more involved in politics. How about making a point of reading about Wall Street first. And then, replace some of the television talking heads and the Congressional grandstanders with some voices of reason. 

If these people are ignoring the sober commentators in favor of those whose writings function like a drug… they should redirect their consumption. On this blog I frequently quote people like Alan Dershowitz, Stephen Cohen, Jonathan Turley… because there are rational voices out there. One does need to seek them out and to read them carefully. 

Better yet, she should insist that all of the patients read this blog. That will set them straight... it's a fair, balanced and objective antidote for Trump Derangement Syndrome. And it costs less than Prozac.

For the sake of LaMotte’s clients, examine a couple of positive stories about the state of the world. The first from yesterday’s New York Times:

The bustling United States economy is beginning to benefit some American workers who have not gotten a taste of the recovery and have been most in need of relief.

That picture was reinforced by a report on Friday from the Labor Department, which showed an increase of 148,000 jobs last month. The figure fell short of economists’ expectations, but some of the most impressive job gains in the past year were in blue-collar and service industries that pay a decent salary.

Over all, average hourly earnings were 2.5 percent higher in December compared with the year before, scarcely keeping up with inflation. But other data shows that wages have increased most for the least-educated workers and for people in many industries that are generally low-paying.

“Growth is strong, and the benefits of this growth have been widely shared,” Jed Kolko, the chief economist for Indeed.com, a job-search site. “This has been a year in which some of the gaps in the economy that had been growing narrowed a bit.”

Manual-labor positions are the kinds of jobs that President Trump has promised to bring back in droves, so progress could be politically important. Hiring picked up fastest in construction and mining. Manufacturing, which lost jobs in 2016, expanded last year at a respectable clip, part of a global resurgence.

Reflecting the economy’s resilience, overall hiring in 2017 was only slightly lower than in 2016 — and it has risen for 87 consecutive months, a remarkable feat.

The unemployment rate was steady at 4.1 percent, a 17-year low. The numbers point to an economy that still has some room to grow.

And also:

Most economists say presidents do not generally determine the economy’s course, and it is too early to measure the hiring effects of the tax cut signed into law last month. But Mr. Trump’s agenda may be having an impact on the economy in other ways. His push to dismantle regulations on businesses seems to have emboldened corporations to start putting more money into machines and plants, the kind of spending that drives broad growth.

A separate survey of manufacturers released on Wednesday suggested that American factories have picked up their orders, production and hiring over the past year.

Democrats offered a less sanguine view of the labor market, asserting that most Americans were still enduring paltry raises and that the Republican tax plan was a boon only to the upper stratum of the country. Among the solutions advocated by Democrats is to increase the minimum wage, as 18 states did on Jan. 1.

And, from the Wall Street Journal editorial page:

Friday’s Labor Department report on the December jobs market was mostly ho-hum, with the economy creating 148,000 net new jobs and the unemployment rate staying flat at a low 4.1%. But one more hopeful figure leapt out at us and a few others: The unemployment rate for black Americans fell to its lowest rate ever at 6.8%.

That’s right. The jobless rate for African-Americans hasn’t been lower since 1972, the earliest date we could find in the Bureau of Labor Statistics data tables. The jobless rate for blacks has always been substantially higher than for whites, and it tends to fall faster later in the economic cycle as growth picks up steam. The black jobless rate fell into the 7%-8% range in 1999-2000, before the dot-com bubble burst, and briefly in 2007 before the financial panic. But it climbed back to as high as 16.8% in 2010 before a long, slow decline as the economy recovered.

Guess what, Chicken Little: The sky is not falling! At least, not yet.