Let’s not forget why he won! The daily onslaught by the broadcasted and printed media in recent days questioning the competence and mental status of President Trump is going to backfire and enable President Trump to emerge stronger and more beloved by more of the American public than ever before.
This unethical and biased use of mental health and psychiatry has been used in the past and has failed. It seems that President Trump’s opponents and the Democratic Party have forgotten about the “Goldwater Rule”, named after Senator Barry Goldwater who was a five-term United States Republican Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 1964 election. The Goldwater rule is the informal name given to Section 7 in the American Psychiatric Association's Principles of Medical Ethics that states it is unethical for psychiatrists to give a professional opinion about public figures they have not examined in person, and from whom they have not obtained consent to discuss their mental health in public statements. It is named after presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. The issue arose in 1964 when Fact published the article "The Unconscious of a Conservative: A Special Issue on the Mind of Barry Goldwater". The magazine polled psychiatrists about U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater and whether he was fit to be president. The editor, Ralph Ginzburg, was sued for libel in Goldwater v. Ginzburg where Goldwater won $75,000 (approximately $592,000 today) in damages.
What President Trump’s defamers seem to ignore and most likely deny, is what brought Trump to win the Presidential election against all odds and become President in the first place. Not since the heyday of the Ronald Reagan presidency has Middle America, dormant throughout the Obama presidency, come back to life, stirred to make their voices heard, awaken to go out and vote with the belief that Donald Trump can bring back what once was.
Donald Trump represents for Middle America also known in many corners of the country as the silent majority, that sense of longing for better times that once were. Donald Trump empowers Middle America with an unshakeable belief that he is “their President” and can be the answer to their life struggles. Donald Trump represents the very embodiment of not telling Middle America how to think, what to do, or which bathrooms to use. He has galvanized not only conservative voters but all voters to reject the dictates of the “establishment”, the elites, and the media. He has given the country back to the people. The public hear President Trump speak on their behalf and only for them, he is beholden to no one other than the American public.
So while every TV station, radio station, internet, and social media are talking about nothing else other than the competency and mental status of President Trump, it becomes relatively easy to identify whose side the media is on and how they have been enlisted to discredit and delegitimize President Trump. This timed and concerted effort to falsely portray President Trump as incompetent is strikingly familiar to how the media in Israel and the Israeli establishment elites have made every effort to keep Benjamin Netanyahu from being Prime Minister, and the similarities are unmistakable.
Despite Netanyahu being repeatedly re-elected over the past two decades, and despite continuing support for him among the Israeli voting public, every day brings new accusations and headlines attempting to tarnish the political viability of Netanyahu. In Israel, every day is open season on Netanyahu; despite the complex political reality, 8 years of the previous Democratic administration and President Obama’s despising Netanyahu, an asymmetrical Palestinian Arab terror wave, and regional threats such as Iran and Hezbollah in the North.
However, in the last elections, Netanyahu was credited with being the only political candidate that brought out Israel’s silent majority, giving the Likud party a commanding lead taking the election at a walk. How did he do it? By speaking the truth, by not blaming the victims, by holding the Palestinian Arabs accountable for the lack of a peace agreement, by defending Israeli interests first and foremost, by making the economy strong and providing jobs, by providing education and health at a reasonable cost to the average Israeli, and for providing a quality of life and sense of well-being that allows a majority of Israeli citizens a sense of community.
Donald Trump represents the very embodiment of not telling Middle America how to think, what to do, or which bathrooms to use.
This is similar to the message that President Trump conveys to the American public. Trump has tapped into the feeling that the public’s personal life struggles are his struggles. Let’s make America strong, let’s make the economy strong, let’s create jobs and improve the American standard of living across the broad, for all. Trump has connected to the people; he is accessible in the media; he tweets and retweets at all hours, engaging his supporters and enraging his enemies; with thousands of people waiting in long lines and bad weather to attend wherever he visits.
Many know Trump to be a flawed candidate, many think he is even a flawed man, yet they feel that this is no different than their own flaws, so he is translating a weakness into political strength, they hear Trump speaking on their behalf, and only for them.
No amount of Psychiatric jargon will alter the public perception that President Trump is doing the job that has to be done. Even unemployment among African Americans is at its lowest level since at least the early 1970’s, when the government began tracking such data. It’s ironic that African Americans are suddenly doing better under a Republican President. This is the power of Trump, and this is the reason that questions of competence and mental status will be inconsequential blips during the Trump era.