Democrats, Israel, and Trump Derangement Syndrome The left’s hatred of Trump—and now Israel—runs so deep, it’s willing to abandon decades of principle just to spite its enemies. By Stephen Soukup
https://amgreatness.com/2025/08/02/democrats-israel-and-trump-derangement-syndrome/
A long time ago, long before he self-radicalized and became a parody of himself, Peter Beinart was the young liberal who wanted to save liberalism. Beinart was still in his twenties when he took the helm of the flagship journal of progressivism, The New Republic, and began speaking and writing about recreating the positive, muscular, America-loving liberalism of the post-war era. In 2004, Beinart penned a long essay for his magazine titled “A Fighting Faith,” in which he articulated the ideas that would become the foundation of the book, The Good Fight: Why Liberals—and Only Liberals—Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again.
Although most of Beinart’s case—in the article and the book—was based on what he saw as the inherent righteousness of American liberalism, the underlying premise was that “conservative” leaders simply couldn’t win the war. Part of this was a flaw in conservatism itself, its practices and tactics, but another part of it was the belief that the conservative administration of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney had squandered the world’s good faith and no longer possessed the moral authority necessary to shepherd the West to victory over the forces of radical Islam.
Although Beinart didn’t intend it as such, his case for liberal leadership in the War on Terror became a corollary to Charles Krauthammer’s theory of “Bush Derangement Syndrome.” The late, great Krauthammer described BDS as “the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the presidency—nay—the very existence of George W. Bush,” and used it to explain how otherwise moderate or sane people (usually Democrats) came to detest everything George W. Bush said or did, even if they knew, in their heart of hearts, that he was right. Because BDS was especially prevalent in connection with the War on Terror, Beinart’s theory that only a “liberal” could win that war became something of a truism. The left and the media (I know, I know…) would never allow Bush—or any conservative—to win the war because of their irrational hatred of him (them). As a result, if the war were ever to be won, a liberal would have to do it.
In short, then, the unified Beinart-Krauthammer theory held—accurately and with little credible opposition—that leftist irrationality and hatred of George Bush made the War on Terror essentially unwinnable. The left’s hatred was more powerful than any instinct it might have to do the right thing.
It’s worth keeping all of this in mind today, as the Democratic Party slowly but surely abandons its support for the state of Israel.
The other day, Senator Bernie Sanders, one of the innumerable self-proclaimed moral consciences of his party, took to the floor of the Senate to discuss the horrors being committed in Gaza. Sanders, who has long at least feigned support for Israel, finally broke bad on his fellow Jews and demanded that the United States intervene to stop the starvation of Palestinians by the Israelis. Of course, Sanders, being a dupe, used a widely debunked and intentionally deceptive image of a child with muscular dystrophy to represent the starving children of Gaza. Because, of course, he did. The supporters of the “famine” theory of Israeli genocide know full well that they can’t use photos of typical Gazan children to make their case. So, of course, they use photos of atypical children, passing them off as something they’re not. In fact, when The New York Times published the same photo Sanders used, it purposely cropped it so that it didn’t show his perfectly normal and healthy-looking brother, which would have spoiled the contrived narrative.
Unfortunately, Sanders is hardly alone in turning against Israel. In fact, at the moment, he is very much in line with his fellow partisans. As the inimitable Seth Mandel recently put it, “In the Democratic Party, the winds are only blowing in one direction: against the Jewish state. And they are not leaving much standing in their wake.”
It is inarguable that some of the Democrats’ newfound antipathy to Israel is driven by ideology and fear. Leftism in America has been overrun by cultural and intellectual insanity, which has made the radical Palestinians a cause célèbre, despite its dreadfulness. As I put it in these pages not long ago:
Edward Said took the frustration and resentment of the Palestinian people and legitimized it. He gave it intellectual heft and justified any response they might have to the Israelis, no matter how horrific. In the words of his puppet, Yasser Arafat, he made their struggle, whatever form it might take, “legitimate and just.” He gave the green light to Arafat and his successors in Hamas to do as they wished to their “oppressors.” And just as important, he convinced the intellectuals of the West to hate the “oppressors” as well…. There is a sickness at the heart of the Palestinian “struggle,” but it is a sickness that is shared by many in the West who profess to be on the side of the angels.
Given this, and given the pervasiveness of this sickness among young, well-educated Democratic voters, Democratic officials have made a craven decision to put their electoral prospects above Israel and this nation’s support for it. Democrats like Bernie Sanders are being pressured to oppose Israel by voters they hope to court. This, in a nutshell, is the reason the Founders created a republic, not a democracy (and why the 17th Amendment is a disaster). The institutions of government should have the wherewithal to resist the passions of the masses, especially their destructive passions.
All of that said, a final, and increasingly important, reason for the Democrats’ opposition to Israel is the Beinart-Krauthammer unified theory, updated and amplified exponentially for the Trump era. In part, Democrats today oppose Israel and the Israelis specifically because Donald Trump supports them. They can’t help themselves. They supported Ukraine overwhelmingly and immediately, in part because they associated Russia with Trump (falsely, it now appears). They opposed the destruction of Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities—despite support for the policy from a majority of Democratic voters—because Trump was the one who took action. They oppose the deportation of criminal illegal immigrants—despite support for the policy from a majority of Democratic voters—because Trump supports it. They oppose cutting waste and fraud from the federal budget—again, despite support for the policy from a majority of Democratic voters—because Trump supports it. And on and on it goes. If Trump’s for it, they’re against it—and vice versa.
Or to put it more bluntly, the left’s hatred is more powerful than any instinct it might have to do the right thing, even if it had been doing the right thing for decades before.
The conventional wisdom on the Right is that Trump is blessed to have the unthinkingly reactionary opponents he has. That may be true, but others—namely, the Israelis—are cursed by the fact that Trump has those opponents. Their Trump Derangement Syndrome is putting Israel’s existence at risk.
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