Where is the real insanity here?
Is President Trump mentally unbalanced? In recent days, it is a popular topic of conversation among the chattering class. It would only happen during a Republican administration. Democrats even found a psychologist that agreed to brief members of Congress, as CNN reported.
A dozen lawmakers from the House and Senate received a briefing from Yale psychiatrist Dr. Bandy X. Lee on Capitol Hill in early December about President Donald Trump’s fitness to be president — and Lee has been asked to speak with additional lawmakers, worried about the President’s mental state, later this month.
“Lawmakers were saying they have been very concerned about this, the President’s dangerousness, the dangers that his mental instability poses on the nation,” Lee told CNN in a phone interview Thursday, “They know the concern is universal among Democrats, but it really depends on Republicans, they said. Some knew of Republicans that were concerned, maybe equally concerned, but whether they would act on those concerns was their worry.”
It may feel like a new line of attack on Trump but this question began mere days after the inauguration. An article was posted online by Psychology Today as early as January 31,2017, discussing a petition on Facebook signed by 18,000 psychologists, psychiatrists, and other professionals.
In the several days since psychologist John Gartner posted a petition on Facebook declaring that Donald Trump must be removed from office because he has “a serious mental illness that renders him psychologically incapable of competently discharging the duties of President of the United States,” more than 18,000 psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals have signed their agreement.
Although the petition has no legal power and it may be the beneficiary of timing more than tactics—it was posted mere hours before Trump issued a highly contentious executive order banning immigrants from some Muslim countries —it has made public what many have been saying privately for some time. And by doing so, it is exposing a large and growing rift within the mental health community.
It appears this action was the result of Trump’s travel ban. Liberal psychologists and others in the mental health service industry decided Trump is mentally unbalanced because he was attempting to fulfill a campaign promise and constitutional requirement to do everything in his power to keep Americans safe at home. Fortunately, not all in the field are so crippled by partisan ideology and a divide was forming in the community.
What about the Goldwater Rule? Hold on, the Trump haters have an answer for that, too.
It is widely regarded as unethical—a violation of the so-called Goldwater Rule—for mental health experts to offer a professional diagnosis of any person they have not personally examined. The rule was established in 1973 by the American Psychiatric Association and is still in force today. Although psychologists are not expressly forbidden from making public pronouncements about the mental health of public figures, the American Psychological Association has affirmed the rule and psychologists generally abide by it.
But Gartner argues that the mental health community has an obligation to protect the public that overrides the Goldwater Rule, and that even in the short time since the inauguration, Trump has proved himself “a clear and present danger.”
Mind you, this was all just days after the inauguration. Running with this narrative, a group of 27 psychiatrists and mental health professionals wrote a book claiming Trump presents a clear and present danger to America. They present public discussions on the topic. None have interviewed Trump or even just spoken to him. I wrote about this not long ago after watching a liberal talk show host interview former Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) on Netflix. Boxer heard the presentation and even extended it out to Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She claims Sanders is brainwashed by Trump. It sounds to me like some in the mental health industry are cashing in on really unethical behavior.
The media and their cohorts on the left are eating this story up. All of them would like for Trump to be gone, preferably impeached. It is common for Democrats and the media to claim Republicans are crazy. Remember, for example, the treatment Ronald Reagan received from them? There is an argument to be made that Trump is not a typical president. There has been nothing to prove he is a clear and present danger to America unless the goal of bringing Trump down has taken over your own brain.
