Out Of Left Field: A national cure for Trump ‘Trauma’

The Island Now

Has there ever been an American election when so many major party leaders disavow their own Presidential candidate?

Democrats have been able to save money and time because so many leading Republicans and Conservatives have already made powerful opposition arguments against their party’s nominee.

Still, Trump “Trauma” represents a serious threat to the health of our nation and the world.  

We have been experiencing the equivalent of a Trump “stroke” that places all of us in a “near-death” crisis situation.

Like any serious personal health crisis, our “body politic” is at risk because we must deal with the most ill-informed, unqualified, irresponsible candidate ever of a major party (Republicans and Conservatives are saying that, in unprecedented numbers).

Even worse than the Trump “stroke,” he represents a contagion that could cause a human epidemic that subverts democracy everywhere.  

The disease, “contagion,” metaphor should alarm all of us because it will need ongoing attention even after the Trump stroke gets the equivalent of hospital “trauma” care. 

We can end first-stage, Trump “trauma” on Nov. 8, but there will still be much to do to restore our nation and others to health.  

I do not rule out that Trump, himself, even at age 70, can move to a better situation (perhaps benefitting from therapy).

However, because of Trump’s horrors already — of language, views, and lies, we will continue to need to deal with the harm “his cesspool of aggression” has been doing even to his supporters.

Trump’s irresponsible grandiosity and dangerous views are so off the scale of American Presidential politics that we have all been stained and diminished by him. 

For how long?

We owe it to his supporters, during the rest of the campaign, and after Nov. 8, to reach out to them and help them return to our celebrated civil society.  

Many Americans, as Bernie Sanders also showed (in far more constructive ways), are frustrated and have grievances.

Among Trump’s failures has been his magnifying of citizens’ deep emotional concerns without providing realistic proposals. 

He continues to inflame irrational behavior by playing the “catastrophic fear” card.

Because of Trump’s extremism and distortions, many of his supporters are reflecting disconnections with reality, as described by Thomas Frank in “What’s The Matter with Kansas?” 

And, so, it will be incumbent on President Hillary Clinton (working with Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Republicans) to restore civil discourse and to address concerns of the 90 percent who have been losing ground the past few decades (during administrations of both Parties).

We face serious problems and we need an American President who is a serious leader. 

In future columns, I will try to address ways to deal with many of our challenges.  America is already great in many respects, but our nation relishes reform, change and progress.

Permit me to return to dealing with how to cure the Trump “Trauma.”  We have a good model in how Long Island’s superb hospitals deal with stroke patients in their “Trauma Centers” (beyond, even, regular Emergency Rooms).   

For near-death emergencies, like a stroke or the Trump campaign, rapid, skilled, knowledgeable response is needed.  

That’s why patients are rushed to hospital Trauma Centers, where they get prompt attention and evaluation from skilled neurologists, cardiologists, MRI radiologists (among others); swift attention is imperative to save lives and restore health.

Failure was rampant throughout our society in not dealing with the Trump “Stroke” soon enough.  

Consequently, the health of our body politic has been severely endangered.

Although Trump regularly disdains experts (people who base views and actions on reliable data), the cure of his excesses, although belated, is well underway.  Never before have so many leaders of a candidate’s party denounced and renounced him.

This is the equivalent of the medical experts making a diagnosis in the Trauma Room. 

It would take several books to detail the testimony against Trump’s many abuses. Here is one major diagnosis: “50 Prominent Republicans Call Trump a National Security Risk” (page 1, New York Times, 8/9/16).

Extensive efforts by the political equivalent of medical experts will be enough to cure the immediate “Trump Trauma” on November 8.

As with any stroke trauma, continuing monitoring, altered life choices, and lots of support from friends and family are essential to go forward in good health.

Kudos for many citizen writers to Blank Slate newspapers; they have gone public to testify against the Trump contagion.  

Please join me in celebrating North Shore concerned citizens (among others):  Esther Confino, Diana Poulos-Lutz, Hal Sobel, Herbert N. Steinberg. 

You all deserve a place on the honor role of service to democracy.

Those attentive, informed citizens are our equivalent of the great 19th century civil rights leader, Theodore Dwight Weld’s “American Slavery: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses.” 

As in a court of law, we in a democracy live with the confidence that evidence matters, that when so many responsible people bear witness, there will be a tipping point to justice.

Trump “Trauma” will begin to fade Nov. 8, but we need to start preparing now for extended reversal of the terrible contagion that he initiated.  

By Michael D’Innocenzo

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