Until my daughter was about 18 months old, she would scream in terror when our dog came through the doggie door.  She was not afraid of Shelagh.  Not at all.  Shelagh was a patient and kind golden retriever.  My daughter shrieked at the doggie door because it appeared to her that Shelagh was springing into existence out of the wall.  She had not yet achieved what developmental psychologists call object permanence, or the ability to know that things continue to exist even when we cannot see them.  Adults naturally say, "Daddy's going bye-bye" to help children learn that Daddy is still there and loves them even when he is away.

Eugene Robinson's 10/01 column, "Imagine what it will be like to never have to think about Trump again," belies the cognitive development of a toddler shrieking at a doggie door.  (The title also appeared on a WaPo tweet within an hour of Trump's announcing he had COVID.  The title became "Vote for Biden and get Trump out of your head" after WaPo felt social media repugnance.)  Like an infant, Robinson represents himself as rendered mentally helpless by the president: "We can evict President Trump from the territory he has forcibly seized in our minds[.] ... We can remove this awful man from our collective headspace, which he has so thoroughly befouled."

What force did President Trump harness to so thoroughly "befoul" Eugene Robinson's mind?  None!  Robinson's distress stems from his failure to achieve full object permanence regarding where the president came from.  Robinson lacks the cognitive maturity to understand that President Trump did not spring into existence from nowhere, that he did not magically materialize from a wall.  Robinson's contempt for the American people prevents him from seeing that Trump was waiting all along in the wings, and that he was elected because he captured the hearts of Americans who share his love for this nation under God.

Furthermore, because Robinson does not share that deep love for America, he has not achieved object constancy regarding who Donald Trump really is.  Object constancy is the emotional corollary to object permanence.  Briefly, it is the ability to understand that the value of other people does not depend solely on your experience or opinion of them.  That cognitive restriction is a hallmark of infantile narcissism. Robinson is not capable of seeing any good in either the president or in the people who elected him.

Robinson explains that President Trump has the power to rob him of his own goodness ("We can reclaim our serenity, our equilibrium, our sense of common humanity...") only, in effect, after "President go bye-bye."  If Robinson has to wait for the election to reclaim his sense of common humanity, he never had any in the first place.  "How much easier to convince our neighbors to follow the advice of scientists ...?"  If Robinson's concern for his neighbors is diminished by politics, he never had much.  "What might we be able to do to stimulate a devastated economy without having to worry about the president's need to brand every bit of aid as a personal gift?"  This question betrays the moral depth of a preschooler.  Generosity does not worry; charity has no brand.  Finally, Robinson displays his banal hatred for America by asking, "Where might the conversation about systemic racism be able to start ...?" Start?  Anyone who thinks a "conversation" about "systemic racism" hasn't started is not just brain-possessed by Trump; he is brain-dead.

Eugene Robinson doesn't know that a great president like this one has a unique permanency in history.  Robinson doesn't experience the existence of the adult, loyal, rational, compassionate, taxpaying, and charitable half of America that supports the president.  How could he?  He belongs to the infantile half.  Fortunately, for the adults, the WaPo and Eugene Robinson have zero power because they went bye-bye long ago.

Image: Washington Post.