Opinion | Trump is going to freak out when he sees this - The Washington Post

-

The NeverTrump geniuses at the Lincoln Project have done it again. Their latest ad seems perfectly designed to spur media chatter and drive President Trump around the bend:

Let's be blunt: Trump has had strange episodes of slurred or nonsensical speech and refuses to be transparent about his trip to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., last November. The voters have every right to know whether the president is well enough to perform his duties. Despite his best efforts to suggest former vice president Joe Biden has "lost a step," it is Trump who seems to be deteriorating.

John Gartner, a psychologist and a former assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, wrote last year in USA Today that there are two signs of language skills deteriorating. "Semantic paraphasia" means you substitute an incorrect word for a correct one. For example, when Trump discussed the "origins" of the Mueller investigation, he said: "I hope they now go and take a look at the oranges, the oranges of that investigation, the beginnings of that investigation."

The second, Gartner explains, is "phonemic paraphasia," or the substitution of one word with a similar sounding non-word. For example, calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "Betanyahu" or saying "bigly" instead of "big league." Such slip-ups are not proof of cognitive decline, but Gartner says they can be linked to moderate to severe stages of Alzheimer's.

Discussing the subject is not a matter of mocking the president or those with disabilities. It is about Trump being transparent about his health and allowing the voters to decide. Moreover, if Trump's condition is deteriorating under the stress of the presidency and his polling collapse, that would be important to know. This is not an attempt to medicalize his bad behavior. He can be judged on his actions and his words, but voters asked to reelect him also have a right to know about his health.

That brings us to another issue. The Lincoln Project ad elevates another concern: the lack of sustained reporting and questioning about Trump's mental and physical state. Why does the White House press corps not do a better job of conveying Trump's behavior, for example, when his speech short-circuits or when he wildly rants about his opponents and litters his remarks with non sequiturs? This is analogous to refusing to call his lies "lies"; when we do not call things for what they are, we conceal the truth; that is, we help perpetuate the lie that Trump's conduct is normal.

Follow Jennifer Rubin's opinionsFollow

In a vain effort to remain "neutral" or to avoid diagnosing the president without a medical license, reports of his appearances often fail to convey just how emotionally unhinged and incoherent he appears. When TV producers lift a clip of Trump's remarks or a reporter quotes a line in print, they (unintentionally perhaps) help him sound more normal and collected than he really is. It is only when you see the entire performance or read a complete transcript (which very few voters have the time or inclination to do) that one can appreciate how downright weird he seems.

Trump's speech defects should be described just as the media does for his physical conduct. If the media can deconstruct his excuses for his "baby steps" down a ramp at West Point over the weekend (e.g., the ramp at West Point was not slippery), they can diagram and dissect his sentences to explain why he makes no sense.

Once more, the Lincoln Project's fearlessness and its willingness to say out loud what we all whisper about provide a great service. It is long past time to have an honest discussion about the president. The topic shouldn't be just in ads but on the front page of every newspaper and near the top of every newscast.

Watch the latest Opinions videos:

Activist and rapper Michael "Killer Mike" Render says black Americans could "have freedom in an instant" if they plot, plan, strategize, organize and mobilize. (Joel Adrian/The Washington Post)

Read more:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ebola has spread for nearly a year in Congo. Officials are scrambling to ‘reset’ the response. - The Washington Post

-
Image
June 20 at 4:06 PM BUTEMBO, Congo —  A dozen young men revved their motor­cycle engines in front of the wooden gate of a makeshift checkpoint — too impatient to have their temperatures checked or to wash their hands with chlorinated water. Health workers manning the post had little choice but to let them pass. Every day, thousands of people travel this road through the epicenter of Congo’s ongoing Ebola outbreak, where they are supposed to comply with field nurses toting gun-shaped thermometers testing for fevers. But that operation is far from perfect, and extinguishing the nearly year-old outbreak is months away at best. Days with a dozen new cases are normal.  “Ebola is like water. If you don’t build a perfect dam, even a small hole can lead to a flood of new cases,” said Marie Roseline Belizaire, the World Health Organization’s deputy manager for the response.  Health officials are confident the outbreak is not spiraling out of control but are worri...
Read more

Allergies or COVID-19: What Are the Differences?

-
Image
itchy skin allergy :: Article Creator Spring Allergy Season Affecting Some People For The First Time Seasonal allergies aren't just for lifelong sufferers anymore.  Doctors say it's increasingly common for adults who've never had allergies to suddenly experience symptoms like sneezing, runny nose, and itchy eyes, especially in the spring. "Allergies can develop later in life," said Dr. Jonathan Matz, an allergist and immunologist with Life Bridge Health. "Over successive exposures, the immune system starts to recognize these allergens and produces antibodies that bind to pollen proteins. It just turns it on." Right now, tree pollen is the biggest trigger. While local trees may not be fully in bloom, pollen from southern New England and the Mid-Atlantic is making its way north, carried by the wind. Experts say allergies often run in families, and people with asthma may be more vulnerable. The combination of p...
Read more

Allergies Don’t Cause a Fever — At Least, Not Directly

-
Image
1st case of ebola :: Article Creator Ebola's Exponential Growth Monday, October 13th 2014 - 00:26 UTC The U.S. Government's Centers for Disease Control warned recently that we could have 1.4 million cases of Ebola by January. By Gwynne Dyer - Here are two good things about the Ebola virus. It is unlikely to mutate into a version that can spread through the air, as some other viruses have done. And people who have been infected by Ebola cannot pass it on to others during the incubation period (between two and 21 days). Only when they develop detectable symptoms, notably fever, do they become infectious to others, and only by the transfer of bodily fluids. Here are three bad things about Ebola. The "bodily fluids" that can transmit it include even the tiniest droplet of sweat: just the slightest touch can pass the virus on. The death rate for those who become infected is 70%. And the U.S. Government's Centers for...
Read more