Columns

Whenever news comes out that is unfavorable to Donald Trump's public image, Trump habitually cries that it is a conspiracy theory. Does he truly believe this, or is he lying outright and playing upon his followers' mental vulnerabilities? And which one of these is worse?  

Donald Trump complains of a "rigged" election. For this, President Obama rightly called Trump a "whiner."  

Regardless of whether Trump is merely a pathological liar or partially psychotic, he has the power of inducing collective psychosis in the minds of his followers. This is a very bad thing.  

It means that even should he lose the election, he will have a cult following that will resemble the tsunami of cults. A third of voters are completely enamored of him, don't care if he lies, don't care if he abuses his power, and don't care about any of the multiple wrongs he has done to people. Trump has some sort of mind control power, over a large percentage of people. That is very dangerous. 

Following the election, I just wonder what we are going to see in terms of protest or retaliation assuming Trump loses. (This, however, we should not assume, and we had all better get out and vote.)  

Even if Trump loses the election, he is left with psychological power over millions of people. I fear we could be looking at some kind of civil war. Following the election, President Obama will have about two months left in office. It will be up to him and the outgoing Congress to deal with the initial chaos that might follow the election.  

Once Clinton and the new Congress take office, they may have their hands full at the prospect of unifying the country, since Trump supporters probably will not want to be unified. We will be up against the NRA, white supremacists, and millions of other people who are oddly enamored with Mr. Trump.  

Or, if Donald Trump takes the Presidency, we could see mass protests about him taking office. However, those who object to Trump probably aren't going to have the same level of violence. 

Is Donald Trump psychotic? Is he a pathological liar? Either way, things could get dicey.  

And what does this mean to persons with psychiatric disabilities? We may be in the rare category of "sane" people, after all. Persons with psychiatric disabilities for the most part already acknowledge that we have minds that can fool us. Thus, we may have more immunity to the socially induced psychosis that affects followers of Trump. 

However, should Trump be elected, our public benefits that are a lifeline to disabled people, including Social Security Disability Insurance, HUD, Medicare, and Medicaid, may all be jeopardized. This could happen due to some cruel edict of the Trump Administration, or it could happen due to the government going bankrupt, something that could very well happen under Donald Trump. 

However, we will be in good company.