I don't believe that Donald Trump Jr is trying to be a psychiatrist, but it appears that he has accurately diagnosed a serious real mental illness on the Left. The Daily Caller published a few of Junior's latest comments. The Democrats and the Media were pushing "sick and twisted conspiracy theories." Anyone with a "sane mind" knew those theories were garbage. And he supplied a new name for them: "Collusion Truthers," raising the comparison to the deluded people who insist that 911 was an “inside job.” 

Donald Trump Jr (photo cedit: Gage Skidmore)

When Joy Reid of MSNBC claims that Attorney General Barr's letter "feels like the seed of a cover-up," or Adam Schiff declares that there is still "ample evidence" of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians, we are not witnessing the first stage of grief, as suggested by Jonathan Turley. This is a serious psychopathology.

Phillipe Reines' performance on Fox news right after AG Barr's letter dropped is illustrative. Each time Molly Hemingway tried to point out the fact that the indictments and pleas of Trump campaign associates had nothing to do with the collusion narrative, Reines shouted her down with "37 indictments and pleas!" He could not allow the truth to destroy his narrative that the presence of malfeasance in any arena was necessarily malfeasance by Trump. In psychiatry, this is called an "obsession."

The Bible of Psychiatry, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, gives a scale for obsessive behaviors.

• "Good or fair insight
• Poor insight
• Absent insight/delusional obsessive-compulsive disorder beliefs (i.e., complete conviction that obsessive-compulsive disorder beliefs are true)"

If we assume that the Left has good or fair insight, they are antisocial persons who "feel little or no empathy toward other people, and don’t see the problem in bending or breaking the law for their own needs or wants." The pictures of Hillary Clinton, James Clapper, James Comey, and many others are attached to this definition.

This has been a considerable problem for those of us who actually believe in truth, justice, and the American way. The Left protects its own, and the falls of Al Franken and Kevin Spacey from grace are rare exceptions to that rule. The Left sacrificed non-essential characters to maintain the fiction that Democrats actually believe in justice. Power is their only currency. Evil-doers will be protected as long as power continues to flow to Democrats. But one has to ask if many Democrats actually have that much insight and are merely anti-social.

As I look across Facebook and the Twitterverse, extreme sentiments appear widely. Repulsive epithets are thrown about like confetti as if they were potpourri to cover the stench of illogic. It is inescapable that a vast number on the Left have become fully Obsessive/Compulsive. This comes from a delusional belief system that completely lacks insight. In short, it's a psychosis, a major psychiatric disorder.

It may be that Van Jones is the sanest of the lot. "There’s an honest level of sadness and disappointment and disorientation among progressives and Democrats and I think it goes deeper than just what’s in the report." He noted, "The revelation that none of that was true had created a general sense of moral confusion among Democrats and also an inability to understand what the administration has done, without the filter of “Russia collusion.” Jones goes on to demonstrate his own insight deficit when he asks why Trump "kisses up to Putin." "Why does he want to meet with him by himself?"

Any sane observer would recognize those Russia-related claims to be complete nonsense. Trump has done more contrary to Putin's benefit than any president before by radically increasing US oil and gas production, which has the effect of severely impacting the sole major source of foreign currency for Russia, but Jones' psychopathology prevents that appreciation. It also allows a blindness to the time Obama told Putin's sidekick Medvedev that "after the election I'll have more flexibility." In other words, I can't kiss up right now, but I can after I'm re-elected. And, by the way, I won't put any effort into stopping your attempts to meddle in our elections.

Obsessive/Compulsive Personality Disorder (aka Trump Derangement Syndrome) is a major psychiatric defect. In this case it has its origin in the incontrovertible fact that only the Left is intelligent or wise. Thus, Donald Trump could not possibly win the Presidency. But when he won, it became imperative that his election be delegitimized.

Within hours, such luminaries as Maxine Waters declared that we needed to "Impeach 45!" Her massive intellect missed the point that you cannot impeach a president who has not yet taken office. Nor has she been able to explain how you can impeach a president for acts that predate the election. The Constitution's "high crimes and misdemeanors," only applies to the president's official tenure. But that level of insight is far beyond the capability of an obsessive.

To the delusional, when any Court rules against one of Trump's actions, that means Trump is an authoritarian, even while the President allows the Court to stay his actions pending appeal. Anything the Left doesn't like is "Unconstitutional!" but of course Obama's acts weren't, even though the Courts consistently ruled against his "pen and phone."

In short, the Loonie Left has a completely delusional view of the world, utterly divorced from reality. "The Left is smarter and wiser than the Right," and the Right must therefore be assimilated. "Resistance is futile." When the Right opposes the Left, and, heaven help us, actually wins a fight, the Left cannot bring itself to understand that they might be wrong. That would be so, so harmful to their self-esteem. Snowflakes cannot allow themselves to be triggered.

TDS is not limited to politicians and commentators. Legal analyst David R Lurie claims that Attorney General Barr has created a new and dangerous interpretation of the doctrine of Obstruction of Justice. To do so, he completely misrepresents the statements of the AG and President Trump to the point of denying that the first sentence of Article II vests all executive authority in a single person: The President. The FBI Director and the Attorney General are his subordinates. To "go easy" on Flynn would be "prosecutorial discretion." But that would contradict Lurie's delusions, and so he repeats them to all who will hear. Of course, Flynn got no discretion, and Trump did not intervene.

David Corn of Mother Jones is not so circuitous in his declamations. "Trump Aided and Abetted Russia's Attack. That Was Treachery. Full Stop." His screed contains so many distortions and lies that they become impossible to count, and even more difficult to comprehend. They stand in direct contradiction to Mueller's evidence and conclusions. We are again left with the disquieting fact that a large part of our public square has become completely bereft of any reasoning power.

The Left's echo chamber demonstrates all sorts of primitive defense mechanisms in play. Denial is obvious, but it's just the first step. Reality is too painful, so it simply cannot be true. Acting out has been ubiquitous with the Antifa movement, with physical assaults against peaceful political opponents. This is justified by projection, where the psychotic person cannot accept his own thoughts and beliefs, and so projects them on to the opponent, the "hater" or "fascist." Projection is often combined with Compartmentalization, where the evil parts of oneself are separated from "who I am" in order to avoid guilt for evil personal deeds.

Slightly more mature defense mechanisms include rationalizations. These are more common in legal commentators than the bulk of the Left. But again, even this depends on the very first, most primitive mechanism: Denial.

"Trump didn't win fair." "Trump is the enemy of America." These and similar demonstrably false tropes are so central to the identity of many on the Left that they cannot be allowed to be challenged without personal disintegration. All of the various denials of the Barr letter have to be seen in this light. They are "tales told by an idiot, signifying nothing." (Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5). Those who thought that the Left might give up the witch hunt have far too optimistic a view of the sanity of the Left. Psychotics cannot choose to gain insight.

Fortunately most Americans are not idiots. The task of providing house and home take too much time and effort to be subverted by the psychotic ravings of Democrats and their lapdogs in the MSM. In my humble opinion, more Americans will be persuaded by multiplying job opportunities and growing wages than the ravings of people who have disconnected from reality. Cries of "unfair!" to the Senate vote on the Green New Deal will be correctly answered by "Democrats were so interested in climate change that they refused to vote for their own bill." Truth will win the day. After all, Americans want safe streets, good schools, and good jobs first. Democrats offer nothing on these frontiers, while Donald Trump is working hard.

Americans are very sane. And they recognize insanity, even if they don't have the fancy language for it. "Collusion Truthers," indeed.

Ted Noel, MD is a retired anesthesiologist. He comments on political issues in the Vidzette podcast at vidzette.libsyn.com.