Defying State Sanctity

Step into a life of maybe
Love is hard to find
In the church of the poison mind
--Culture Club

Interesting piece by Jeff Tucker on the root cause of Trump Derangement Syndrome--the left's ceaseless hysteria over the the actions of Donald Trump and his administration. Tucker thinks that the left, and really statists of all stripes, sees Trump as a threat to the institution of government.

Government is the statists' preferred tool for achieving their aspirations. Statists have at least 100 years invested in building government's image not as a taker, but as a giver. The president is seen as a high priest of political process with a duty to reflect the sensibility of government as good.

Trump is an outsider who, since his early days on the campaign trail, made it clear that political correctness is not part of his M.O. Unlike his predecessor who carefully adhered to institutional protocol, Trump has done anything but. Among other things, observes Tucker,

"[Trump] overthrew the respective establishments of two parties, tore right into the legitimacy of the national press, humiliated every expert who predicted his demise, and is now stumbling around Washington like a bum in a jewelry store."

As Tucker notes, Trump has not cut back on the size of the state in any meaningful way, and many of his policies (e.g., healthcare, infrastructure spending) largely preserve or increase central government scope.

What Trump is doing is ruining the statist vision of how a president should act, thereby discrediting a sacred institution in the eyes of many. As institutional prestige associated with the federal government declines, so does the state's legitimacy in the eyes of many.

For many statists, this is simply unacceptable. Trump is a threat that must go. The conclusion that many disciples have reached is that saving the old faith requires that this president be removed from office. Thus, impeachment chants from the statist church grow louder by the day.