The impeachment hullabaloo is clearly revealing the Left's virulent hatred of President Donald Trump.  The Trump Derangement Syndrome is blatantly on display for everyone to see, especially among the obnoxious Ivy League law professors featured last week in the media.  What should be equally obvious is that while Trump is the symbol, the real object of the Left's hatred is we — the average Americans whom Hillary called the "deplorables" and "irredeemables," and the ones that Barack Obama claimed "cling to their guns and religion and have antipathy to people who aren't like them."  Our values, our beliefs, our taste in music and food, our very existence offends the Progressives.  They especially hate our patriotism and our support for America and the values that undergird our nation's strength and buttress our position as "the greatest nation in the history of the world."  Progressives hate our vision of America as exceptional and blessed by God.

They hate that our vision of what America should be, what the Founders designed it to be, is contrary to what they thought was within their reach when Obama promised to "fundamentally transform" this country.  They especially hate that we will not bow down to the supposed superiority of the elites, those who have gained control of the levers of power in the bureaucracy, Congress, educational hierarchies, the entertainment industry, and numerous other segments of culture and governance.

The Progressives have trotted out a long litany of allegations to throw at Trump, calling him "dangerous," "scandalous," "psychotic," "a liar," a "toxic narcissist," and a racist xenophobe.  Most recently, a team of psychiatrists organized to question his "mental health" and petitioned against him because his "mental state is deteriorating dangerously," warranting his removal from office.  He is not their patient, so their opinion is unprofessional.  And it is not just the president; the elites see those of us who voted for Trump and support his policy positions — despite our full knowledge of his all too human shortcomings — in the same light: we are viewed as despicable, ignorant, bigoted, white nationalists.

Trump's cunning maneuvers, however crude, somehow manage to expose Progressive shenanigans, causing them to boomerang rather than reach their intended target.  Typical of this is the fact, for example, that in their attempt to impeach him over the Ukraine corruption accusations, leftists have exposed Joe Biden's use of the threat to withhold foreign aid as a club to prevent the investigation of payoffs going to his son.  Up to now, their schemes have been hidden from the public by high-sounding rhetoric and sheer hypocrisy.  But with the slow but sure disintegration of the MSM's monopoly on information caused by the development of alternative media outlets, the constant projection of Progressives' own corruption onto anyone who opposes them is no longer getting the traction it once had.

Trump promised to "drain the swamp" and has systematically fulfilled his promises one by one.  His progress has been ground out inch by inch due to the concerted, vigorous efforts of the Deep State to block what we elected him to do at every turn by any means possible.  Further, Progressives have finagled from activist judges numerous court injunctions to short-circuit and prevent from being realized the goals of the people who elected the president.

As Trump exposes the Progressive schemes, their strongholds are crumbling, and their hold on power is ebbing away in area after area.  For them, it's a matter of power and control: the Trump presidency must be overthrown.  In the beginning, they were so arrogant and so insolated in their east- and west-coast bubbles that they failed to recognize the threat posed by the anger and discontent of the people with traditional views.  Now they see it but are too proud to acknowledge the weakness of their own supposed superior position.  Their flailing efforts at impeachment spring from their fear of losing their control of society, the dominant position of power they thought they had consolidated under Obama.  In their own minds, they were so close.

After all, they've practically taken over the nation's schools and higher education.  They have found ways to get into influential positions where they dominate curricula and school policies so that children and young people are indoctrinated with Progressive ideology.  The same has happened in the professional organizations in education and psychology, law and medicine, sociology and history, sapping their quality and vitality.  The erosion in excellence and impotence in contributing to society's well being are most dramatically evident in churches, where mainline denominations under the dominance of progressive leadership are fading into irrelevance.

If Trump wins in 2020, he and the deplorables will continue "draining the swamp" in Washington, D.C. and in the other areas where things have to be cleaned out.

The "right decision" for Progressives like Majority Leader Pelosi is a complete overhaul of American values.  Right now, President Trump, for all his crudeness and tweets, stands athwart that overhaul, saying, "Not on my watch," so Progressives must stop Trump if they are to continue the takedown of traditional values, free speech, and freedom of religion.  The histrionics of the impeachment circus are designed to undermine Trump and abort the progress of the "Make America Great Again" movement, much as these people managed to sandbag the Tea Party uprising.

The success of their impeachment efforts will be measured by the ballot boxes in 2020.  Whether or not they manage to bring Trump down, they will not give up their pseudo-religious quest; they will continue, as Angelo Codevilla described so perfectly, "effectively nullifying national laws.  And they will get away with it."  Codevilla cites as examples the marijuana laws in Colorado and California that defy national laws and the existence of sanctuary cities.

Those problems affect relatively few Americans, but the abridgement of our First Amendment rights affects everyone.  Increasingly, our freedom of speech is threatened.  With the introduction of "hate speech," suddenly, there are things that if spoken can cost a person his job or reputation.  Even the presence of a conservative can be threatening — a headline last week speculated that perhaps Sean Spicer, former Trump press secretary, being a celebrity contestant on Dancing with the Stars led to the series being canceled for next spring.

Conservatives are shaking their heads at such hatred and ridiculous abuses of individual rights, but every day, we are faced with situations where only a Progressive view is allowed.  Behind Trump Derangement Syndrome are Progressives who are determined that "group think" will prevail and deplorables will be silenced.

If we do not stand and fight the bullies, if we neglect to muster all our might to defend our rights, they will use whatever skullduggery they can concoct to destroy Trump, steal the 2020 election, strip us of our liberty, and step by step impose their fascist Utopia.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr.