The following column by Dianne Williamson was posted on the Worchester Telegram website May 16, 2017:
It’s become a perverse parlor game, trying to figure out what’s wrong with the president of the United States.
No one wants to play, but we can’t help ourselves. Nor can we avoid obsessing over his wild misstatements, his grade-school vocabulary, his petulant behavior and penchant for contradicting the pathetic surrogates he dispatches to lie for him, as though he’s forgotten about the invention of the television set.
I don’t know about your house, but this scenario plays out like clockwork many evenings when we’re unwinding after a day at the office:
What do you want to do tonight?
Turn on CNN.
No. It’s all about Trump. We need a break.
I know. But I can’t help it.
I understand. But it’s unhealthy. Let’s watch a movie.
But did you hear what he said today? He’s unhinged. Can you believe it?
No. Sigh. (Turns on CNN.)
This is a man who couldn’t even keep his own story straight within hours of his disgraceful firing of former FBI director James Comey, who admitted that the Russian probe was on his mind when he unceremoniously gave Comey the ax, something he wasn’t supposed to say out loud, especially after his spokespeople pinned the blame on the letter from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
And on Monday, the Washington Post reported that Trump revealed highly classified information to the Russians.
So, what gives? His instability is so obvious and concerning that some psychiatrists have abandoned the “Goldwater rule,” which discourages them from publicly diagnosing anyone who isn’t their patient, to opine that Donald Trump suffers from a mental illness. The one most often cited is narcissistic personality disorder, which is characterized by persistent grandiosity, lack of empathy, a craving for admiration and sense of entitlement. Sound like anyone we know?
Lately, another theory has emerged. Some now speculate that Trump is experiencing a general cognitive decline, perhaps dementia or even Alzheimer’s. Now, I’m not saying this theory is true. I have no idea. But as long as we’re on the subject, I’ve long noticed a striking difference between the younger Donald Trump and the older one. Sure, everyone changes as they age, but he literally seems like two different people.
Check out any clip of Trump from, say, 15 to 20 years ago. Sure, he’s the same arrogant, egotistical guy we’ve grown to know and loathe, but the younger Trump is smoother, more articulate and relaxed, more comfortable in his skin. He’s no Mensa member, but at least you don’t have the urge as he speaks to silence him with a tranquilizer gun.
For example, check out this jaw-dropping, disjointed rant he delivered in July 2015 in South Carolina:
“Look, having nuclear – my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart – you know, if you’re a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I’m one of the smartest people anywhere in the world – it’s true! – but when you’re a conservative Republican they try – oh, do they do a number – that’s why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a fortune – you know I have to give my, like, credentials all the time, because we’re a little disadvantaged — but you look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me — it would have been so easy, and it’s not as important as these lives are (nuclear is powerful; my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what’s going to happen and he was right — who would have thought?), but when you look at what’s going on with the four prisoners — now it used to be three, now it’s four — but when it was three and even now, I would have said it’s all in the messenger, fellas, and it is fellas because, you know, they don’t, they haven’t figured that the women are smarter right now than the men, so you know, it’s gonna take them about another 150 years — but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us.”
These are not the ramblings of a rational person, let alone the leader of the free world. At 70 years old, Trump is the oldest person to be elected president. He’s unencumbered by any sense of consistency, logic or reason.
The fact that we’re trying to figure out what’s wrong with our belligerent, paranoid president is surreal and rather terrifying. But we can’t ignore the warning signs, and we can’t tolerate his unsteady leadership for much longer. The Republican leaders who enable and excuse this man must step up and grow a spine.
For the sake of our nation and our sanity, something’s got to give, and soon.
View the post here.