Bill Clinton and Danney Williams
Opinion: In my abnormal human psychology class a half century ago, we studied Sigmund Freud’s neurotic defense mechanisms. While Freud has been discredited in many ways, his idea of projection seems obviously valid to me—not so much as a sign of a psychiatric illness, but as a political tactic: Accuse your opponent of what you yourself are doing. Maybe that’s a subset of “the best defense is a good offense.”
Half of Trump’s supporters—the ones in Hillary Clinton’s irredeemable “basket of deplorables”—are presumed guilty of the unforgivable sin of racism. If whites are unaware of racist feelings, they are still there, buried deep in the subconscious, to be exposed by corrective psychoanalysis or reeducation.
But many psychologists or psychiatrists these days prefer to look at behavior. We might ask: what is the most egregious thing a racist could do? How about denying or “banishing” her own biracial child—or stepchild?
This past summer during a trip to Washington, DC, I accepted an invitation to have lunch at the White House. Someone mentioned to me in passing that the White House, and more particularly the Oval Office, was the “Center of Democracy.” While I certainly understand the logic behind the statement, somehow it didn’t totally ring true in my own perception.
Note: A magnificent review of conservative concepts and principles recently highlighted by Rush Limbaugh and posted on Claremont.org provide an intelligent principled conservative justification to vote for Donald Trump – a serious consideration that highlighted here as some local activists and beloved friends continue to dismiss the candidate 2016 conservative primary voters selected. The piece begins:
Opinion: There is no better example of how a ‘bad apple ruins the whole bunch’ than cops. Day-in-day-out, stories of police brutality or racism have been flooding social media outlets pushed by anti-civilization ideologues and perpetuated by mainstream news agencies all too eager to defame law enforcement. Tragic incidents have happened since enforcement began and it’s a serious problem, but the current cultural approach has done nothing but made the problem worse. As a result every cop, even the good and decent ones, are being treated with mistrust, disrespect and general hostility. This must stop.