Verrückt. Loco. Псих. 疯 . Fou. Τρελός. クレイジー . çılgın. Pazzo. مجنون
dÚsachtach. पागल . Insanis. Brjálaður. Mambo. божевільни. מְטוּרָף
Khùng. ਪਾਗਲ. Udidekile ngokomqondo. Gila. دیوانه
Whatever their language, people all around the world are starting to use its word for crazy or insane when they fearfully speak or think about one of the major party nominees for the presidency of the United States.
The erratic behavior of Donald J. Trump over the past week-and-a-half has reached a level extraordinary even by his past standards--or lack thereof. So much so that a growing number of people now see him as an existential threat to the nation and the world. As his campaign has been imploding, Trump has been acting in totally irrational ways. Top Republicans are described as being "apoplectic" and "suicidal" over where he is taking the party, but Trump blithely says, "I just want to tell you, the campaign is doing really well; it's never been so united."
It is becoming difficult to avoid the conclusion that the Republican nominee is suffering from an actual mental disorder. Eugene Robinson said in an August 1 column what so many others are thinking: "Now I am increasingly convinced that he's just plain crazy." Republican wordsmith Peggy Noonan wrote in the Wall Street Journal that it was "the week they decided Donald Trump is crazy." And on Sunday, The Telegraph (London) reported, "Donald Trump's calamitous week leads to questions about his state of mind."
The likelihood that Trump is mentally impaired raises a difficult question for those who are terrified by the possibility of such a person becoming President of the United States. He must be defeated, but if he is really mentally handicapped, how should decent people treat him?
We don't want to stoop to Trump's level of making fun of the disabled, as he infamously did last November when he mocked reporter Serge F. Kovaleski, who is afflicted with arthrogryposis, a disease that limits the mobility of his limbs and causes his joints to lock. "Now the poor guy, you gotta see this guy," Trump said, twisting his arm into a crooked pose and making a contorted face. "'Uh, I don't know what I said. I don't remember.' He's going, 'I don't remember. Maybe that's what I said.'"
Trump also derided conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer, who is paralyzed from the waist down. "Krauthammer is a jerk," Trump said. "I get called by a guy that can't buy a pair of pants, I get called names?"
If the Republican nominee is suffering from mental problems, it would not be right to ridicule him. Fortunately, there is an approach to him that will greatly contribute to the destruction of his threatening candidacy while maintaining a high level of human decency.
Before we get to that approach, though, let us briefly examine the case for believing that Trump suffers from a mental disorder and try to identify what that disorder is.
Since the beginning of his campaign (and long before on such "issues" as President Obama's birth certificate), Trump has played, to great effect with his base of followers, the part of a mad man--and a madman. What has happened in the past week represents an escalation of that madness.
There are many terms that accurately describe Donald Trump. He is a bully. He is a hater. He acts like a six-year-old on a school playground calling opponents silly names. He is a misogynist. He is vengeful.
He is a pathological liar and a hypocrite of the first order:
He is a full-blown narcissist . He is disconnected from reality. He is a megalomaniac. He is a solipsist.
But there is another word that may explain Trump's behavior, and it's time that word starts being uttered, since it provides the kindest explanation of his statements and actions: Alzheimer's.
The proper way to deal with someone who has a mental disability is also the one that is likely to be most effective in completing the destruction of his candidacy and so saving the nation and the world from the possibility of a Trump Presidency:
Express pity for him.
Poor, Poor Pitiful Him.
What's left of the Trump campaign can be drowned under a flood of sympathy for his mental instability. We have seen how he responds ferociously to any perceived attack on him. But his response to expressions of pity for him is likely to be an even greater level of rage. The more people say they pity Donald Trump, the more unhinged he will become. Kill his menacing candidacy with kindness.
Love trumps hate.
{Robert S. McElvaine, who teaches history at Millsaps College and is the author of ten books, has just completed a draft of his first novel.}