Leftists adopted a new strategy to defeat the president.  They are calling his mental health into question.

As the possibilities of the Russian collusion investigation fade, a new attack on the president becomes necessary.  The latest assault on the president involves an attack on his mental health status.  On September 6, a Yale University psychiatrist reported to the media that two members of the Trump administration have been "scared" by the president.  Dr. Bandy Lee told Salon and the New York Daily News that two Trump White House officials contacted her last October and informed her that Trump is "unraveling."

She gave them a confusing response: "Not wishing to confuse the role I chose, as an educator of the public, and a potential treatment role, I referred them to the local emergency room without inquiring much further."

Mentioning her potential treatment role is a bit grandiose.  It is unlikely that the president would call on her for "treatment."  Dr. Lee is the author of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President.  She is also the author of an article in which she claims that her book keeps "within the letter of the Goldwater rule."  This rule supposedly prohibits psychiatrists from diagnosing public figures without a personal examination and without consent.  After explaining the Goldwater rule, she proceeds to diagnose the president.  Not surprisingly, her conclusion is that the president is crazy.  David Frum in The Atlantic claims that the anonymous article has "enflamed the paranoia of the president." 

The Hill's article on the doctor's concerns followed the previous day's New York Times op-ed by anonymous.  Anonymous is supposedly a high-ranking Trump administration official.  He claimed that the idea of removing Trump from office had been discussed by his top aides.  The 25th Amendment contains the procedure for removing a president who his Cabinet believes is incapacitated.  Sen. Elizabeth Warren believes that it is time for White House officials to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove the president.  In her eyes, he is obviously incapacitated or, as Martin Sheen dubbed him, an "empty-headed moron."  Martin Sheen played a psychiatrist in the 1987 movie The Believers.

This leads to the question: who is really crazy?  Do you recall all the Tea Party members who were removed from the Senate chamber for disrupting Ruth Bader Ginsburg's confirmation hearings?  Neither do I.  Perhaps it was just not covered in the press.

The left and the right have totally different ways of dealing with problems.  The left's view is influenced by the entertainment industry.  A movie star who played a psychiatrist can diagnose people.  Stars who played farm wives (Jane Fonda, Sissy Spacek, Jessica Lange, and Sally Field) can testify before Congress on the future of family farms.  The New York Times can claim that the Wakanda in the movie Black Panther offers an almost too perfect rebuttal to President Trump's comments about African nations.  Former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson carries a little plastic Obama doll in her purse.  She pulls it out every now and then to remind herself that the United States had a progressive, African-American president until recently.  She claims, "Some people find this strange, but you have to take comfort where you can find it in Donald Trump's America."

Then there are the mass demonstrations, where the attendance can be measured by the amount of trash left behind.  On the anniversary of President Trump's election, leftists performed a "howl-in."  From New York City's Washington Square Park to Eugene, Oregon, thousands of people took part in what Facebook called "Scream helplessly at the sky on the anniversary of the election."  Eva Sahana of Refuse Fascism announced, "We are screaming in rage, we are screaming in pain, but we are screaming in unity and solidarity 'cause we have a plan and a way forward."  The Philadelphia screamers outside City Hall concluded with chants of "F--- Trump."

In addition to the scream movement, there is the "Pussyhat Project."  On January 21, 2017, a day after Donald Trump's inauguration, approximately 200,000 people were supposed to march on Washington, D.C. to advocate for "gender equality."  Tens of thousands of them were anticipated to wear "pussy hats" – pink knitted beanies with cat ears. 

The leftist elite is so convinced of its intellectual superiority that it has lost touch with reality.  If you are involved in a contest where you believe that your opponent is less competent than you and he defeats you, you may explain that by saying you were not putting much effort into the contest.  You may be able to excuse your defeat up to the third contest.  However, if your opponent defeats you overwhelmingly ten times in a row, it is time to concede that your opponent is a better contestant.  If you admit this, you may be able to improve your performance by going back to school.  If you insist that you are still a superior contestant, you will be continually defeated.

John Dietrich is a freelance writer and the author of The Morgenthau Plan: Soviet Influence on American Postwar Policy (Algora Publishing).  He has a Master of Arts degree in international relations from St. Mary's University.  He is retired from the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.