Quite Unhinged

Charles Krauthammer has an interesting discussion of Bush Loathing today in his Townhall. com column. What you may not know is that Krauthammer is actually a trained psychiatrist. Read the entire article, but here is a taste:

The loathing goes far beyond the politicians. Liberals as a body have gone quite around the twist. I count one all-star rock tour, three movies, four current theatrical productions and five best sellers (a full one-third of the New York Times list) variously devoted to ridiculing, denigrating, attacking and devaluing this president, this presidency and all who might, God knows why, support it.
How to explain? With apologies to Dr. Freud, I propose the Pressure Cooker Theory of Hydraulic Release.
The hostility, resentment, envy and disdain, all superheated in Florida, were not permitted their natural discharge. Came 9/11 and a lid was forced down. How can you seek revenge for a stolen election by a nitwit usurper when all of a sudden we are at war and the people, bless them, are rallying around the flag and hailing the commander in chief? With Bush riding high in the polls, with flags flying from pickup trucks (many of the flags, according to Howard Dean, Confederate), the president was untouchable.
The Democrats fell unnaturally silent. For two long, agonizing years, they had to stifle and suppress. It was the most serious case of repression since Freud's Anna O. went limp. The forced deference nearly killed them. And then, providentially, they were saved. The clouds parted and bad news rained down like manna: WMDs, Abu Ghraib, Richard Clarke, Paul O'Neill, Joe Wilson and, most important, continued fighting in Iraq.
Stripped of his halo, the president's ratings went down. The spell was broken. He was finally once again human and vulnerable. With immense relief, the critics let loose.
The result has been volcanic. The subject of one prominent new novel is whether George W. Bush should be assassinated. This is all quite unhinged. Good God. What if Bush is re-elected? If they lose to him again, Democrats will need more than just consolation. They'll need therapy.

My only quibble with Krauthammer is that I think the Democrats need therapy NOW. In their gleeful delight at denigrating the president and accusing him of all sorts of crimes and atrocities; they have caused a considerable amount of collateral damage to their own country. They seem so unhinged as to prefer the demise and destruction of the U.S. rather than examine their own motivations and conflicted souls.

There is much for honorable men and women to debate about how best to respond to the war thrust upon us by the events of 9/11. George Bush has been both bold and determined, but he has made mistakes in both strategy and tactics. If the Democrats could get over their childish pouting about the 2000 election, and stop pretending that our country and its values are not in mortal danger from a homicidal maniac who rose to power during their watch, they might have a chance this November. As it is, without some Anger Management Therapy, they will continue to act quite unhinged.