It's not a think anymore than B(ush)DS or (O)DS or (B)DS were. It's just a convenient thing for supporters of whatever party is in power to rely on, rather than defending their person's policy.
There is rightful, legitimate Hilary Clinton hatred, but I wouldn't label it HDS
I don't really want this, but at the same time, I do kinda want to hear the explanation:
What is TDS [Trump Derangement Syndrome]? (See, I know what it stands for, but I have no idea how to apply it.)
As I understand it, the general concept is: they guy says a lot of stuff just to rile people up; he doesn't really mean it; or maybe he says a lot of stuff off the cuff, so don't take it too seriously.
If I've got that right, how are we supposed to tell what to believe and what not to believe? Do we just ask a Trumper? That would be like asking a Biden sychophant to explain why Biden didn't really mean what he said (and that he's not going senile).
So what's the test for TDS?
Because I'm not going to lie to you: telling Congress it should recess so that he doesn't have to get his cabinet appointees confirmed, nominating Gaetz and Kennedy for AG and HHS, respectively, and putting Stephen Miller in the White House (just to name the most outlandish appointments so far) doesn't seem like he's just shooting from the hip with stuff he doesn't really mean. It sort of seems like it's exactly what he was saying he was going to do--that people keep accusing his opponents of suffering from TDS for pointing out.
I'm going to push back a little bit on this. It isn't that it is totally absent among Conservatives/Republicans but it is MUCH less prevalent.
I think this is for the same reason that gerrymandering inherently favors Republicans. Quite simply, in our modern political landscape, Democrats are MUCH more densely packed than Republicans.
On most metrics, Republicans win small majorities of large groups while Democrats win large majorities of small groups.
Consider a few metrics, first race:
According to NBC's exit poll
NBC's exit poll:
- White voters made up 71% of the electorate and Trump won them 57-41 over Harris.
- Black voters made up 11% of the electorate and Harris won them 85-13 over Trump.
In round numbers, three out of five whites voted Trump while five out of six blacks voted Harris.
Other metrics on which Democrats are similarly densely packed include education and geography. Here I'll focus on Geography and explain how this works in practice:
My county is considered pretty conservative and Trump won here roughly 60-40. San Francisco where I think
@SFBadger96 hails from voted for Harris over Trump 80-16 according to
the first hit on google when I looked it up.
The ratios are roughly:
- 3:2 R here in Medina County, Ohio.
- 5:1 D in San Francisco.
On a practical level, this leads to what I refer to as a "Critical Mass" issue.
Example:
Lets say that
@SFBadger96 and I trade places. He becomes a Democrat in Medina and I become a Republican in San Francisco.
Now lets say that we have a group of homeowners who get together for dinner or a group of co-workers who get together for lunch and lets say these groups have 5-6 people:
- In Medina, @SFBadger96 is typically one of 2-3 Democrats in a group of 5-6 people.
- In San Francisco, I am nearly always the ONLY Republican in a group of 5-6 people.
Unless you are just a disagreeable person who simply likes to argue, there is no point in talking politics as an R in San Francisco because in any normal-sized group you are almost always a minority of one.
This simply doesn't apply to Democrats in Medina.
@SFBadger96 as a Democrat in Medina is typically going to have someone on his side in a political discussion in a group of 5-6 people. Furthermore, since most people aren't monolithically Republican nor monolithically Democrat, there will be issues on which he is actually in the majority in that group of 5-6 people. Maybe one of the three R's is pro-choice so the group is 3:2 pro-choice. Conversely, one of the D's might be pro-gun so he might be a minority of one from time to time but not ALL THE TIME like I would be in SF.
The consequence of this is that as scarce as Republicans are in SF, they actually appear to be even LESS prevalent because the few Republicans that are around generally just keep their mouths shut too avoid the arguments.
You are much more susceptible to "TDS" when you operate in an environment where the other side is flat invisible. At that point it is easy to think that only abject nutcases could possibly vote for the other side because you don't know and interact with any real people who do. It is a lot harder for a Republican in Medina to fall into that trap because in a typical group of five, there are two D's. We DO know and interact with plenty of D's and we know that they (or at least some of them) are NOT abject nutcases. We know that at least some of them are good people who we are happy to have as neighbors and proud to call friends.
