November 19, 2004

Misdiagnosis

By Thomas Lifson
The extended post—election public despair of disappointed Democrats has been nearly as remarkable as the Republican victory, its supposed proximate cause. Therapists, anxious to keep their couches warm, have rushed in to make up a self—serving syndrome for their clients to overcome, 'Post Election Selection Trauma.' A nice bit of marketing, that. Most important is the acronym PEST. Turn the electoral mandate of George W. Bush into a public affliction, with overtones of vermin as the root cause. Throw in a hot button word like 'selection' to get to the right four letters, dredging up memories of the 2000 Florida recount and Supreme Court ruling, even at the cost of a silly redundancy like 'election selection.' The left in America loves to medicalize problems. Radical physicians define guns as a 'public health problem,' after all. Making the voice of the majority into a malign source of illness adds victimization to the mix, another marketing appeal virtually irresistible...(Read Full Article)