The Most Abused President in History

There's no doubt that President Trump is the most abused president in modern history – more so than George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and Richard Nixon, all of whom caught their share of flak. That's the judgment of Fox News's Brit Hume, who sees today's partisanship as "the most intensely hostile political atmosphere" in memory – in his case, a memory stretching back almost 50 years. Hume believes that the treatment of President Trump is "the most biased coverage" he's ever seen. The bias continues in spite of the brief détente following the shooting of Steve Scalise and other GOP lawmakers and associates this month. Ava Navarro's labeling of the president as a "crazy lunatic, 70-year-old man-baby" is yet another uncivil attack from the left – in this case, one that appears to combine unwarranted abuse with blatant age bias. Would the left have questioned Hillary's abilities, or those of Bernie Sanders, on the basis of age?

I wonder how Trump can stand it. The president must be incredibly thick-skinned or possessed of a truly magnanimous soul. Although he often defends himself by striking back, it's hardly proportional. For every Trump tweet, there are thousands of attacks from the liberal media. It's clear that the left is grasping at straws and has now descended into name-calling, the lowest form of rhetoric. If the attacks were based on substance, they might be taken seriously. But "crazy lunatic"? That is the stuff of an affronted seven-year-old, not of an educated adult. Now that Russiagate has unraveled and "collusion" has gained little traction, what's next? More name-calling, accompanied by an endless string of groundless charges, all of them the purported basis for impeachment – everything from continuing refusal to release his tax returns to receiving "foreign emoluments." The progressive website "fivethirtyeight.com" hosts plenty of this sort of talk. Nate Silver recently pointed to what he views as the president's "escalating pattern of [alleged] misconduct," whatever that is supposed to mean. At least Silver noted that the misconduct is "alleged." That doesn't stop Silver from proclaiming that there's already a basis for impeachment and speculating that Congress "will probably wind up with more before long." Nor does it stop him, in a very long-winded discussion of impeachment history, from noting that impeachment is "more likely if Democrats take over the House in 2019" and that Trump's conviction is possible if enough Republican senators come to view the president as a political liability. Or if Trump continues to antagonize members of Congress. Or if Trump becomes unpopular with voters... Silver admits at one point that he is "deep into speculative territory." That's where the left dwells these days. They were stunned by Trump's election victory, and they've been in denial ever since. Their response is abuse, profanity, obstruction, and fantasies of impeachment, or worse. Barring impeachment, for example, Silver points to the fact that "eight presidents died during their term," a statement that seems highly provocative and inappropriate – but apparently not to Silver's readers at fivethirtyeight. The ubiquity of such violent fantasies is a comment on the current state of the progressive movement. The American media, including social media, is overwhelmingly anti-Trump. The heart of the matter is that the left does not wish to make America great again. Leftists wish to see America diminished. They do not favor "America First," "more and better jobs for American workers," "lower taxes for individuals and businesses," "repealing and replacing Obamacare," "greater national security," "immigration security," and other Trump initiatives. They favor fewer good jobs, higher taxes, less military spending, open borders, and bowing to the world outside the U.S. The media are guilt-ridden over our national history, as they see it, of racism and class oppression. They despise the middle class, and they live in a politically correct nightmare of benefiting from any sort of privilege or unfair advantage. On the contrary, they are intent on conferring unfair advantages to minorities and the socially oppressed, especially when this diminishes the opportunities of the white middle class. Trump stands in the way of this agenda of relinquishment and repudiation. Once the American people, with Trump's help, turn their back on the politics of white guilt and income inequality, the progressive movement will deflate like a punctured balloon. That's why they are in a panic to stop him. And that's why they must insist that Trump is the worst president in history. Ironically, the better Trump does, the worse he can be made to appear with voters on the left. Already, American mining and energy sectors have seen a resurgence, but what should be good news is bad, according to the left, whose intent is to kill off both sectors. Already, key alliances have been strengthened with Britain and Saudi Arabia, among others, and border security has been improved. But that's bad news for those who wish to weaken the U.S. Already, economic projections have turned up – more bad news for the left, because with wage growth, more Americans are entering the much despised middle class. Yes, Trump is "guilty" of restoring jobs to the middle class, increasing national security, and blocking terrorism, to say nothing of proposed health care reform and tax cuts. But in the eyes of the left, he is guilty of something worse: blatant disregard for what constitutes the moral basis of the American progressive movement – that is, political correctness and class guilt. Trump's nonchalant disregard for the left's condemnation of America is the unforgivable sin. Without race, class, and gender, and the guilt that for many attaches reflexively to each of these categories, the American left has no basis for existence. The same goes for the mainstream media, much of which, as Brit Hume put it, has abandoned the idea that they should be "neutral" in presenting the news. Hume is correct in suggesting that the media are now largely incapable of fair reporting. Far from it. Like the left in general, the mainstream media will continue portraying Trump as the worst president in history – even as he shows promise of becoming one of the best. Jeffrey Folks is the author of many books and articles on American culture including Heartland of the Imagination (2011).