SEVERE MENTAL ILLNESS

As usual, Dr. Sanity gets it right. It's worth reading the whole thing.

Dave has hit on a very fundamental necessity for being able to remain on the [psycho]path of denial: the Democrats and the left have staked so much--their entire self-concept, in fact--on losing in Iraq and the evil of George Bush and the Republicans, that they cannot be satisfied with merely winning the Presidential election. 'Hope and Change' was just a motto for them, it was the only way they could continue to keep their eyes closed.

You can sense this dissatisfaction in the unseemly giddiness of the the Inaugural hoopla and the 24 hour a day coverage of the Man who would be King. You can see it in the unbelievable excess and inappropriate costs in a time of financial crisis (didn't we just condemn AIG executives for doing something similar?); and you can see it in the unrealisitic, nearly psychotic fantasies that are emerging as The Holy One ascends to the throne of God Presidency of the U.S. The childrens' books are already printed (it's never too soon to indoctrinate the next generation) and the silliness of the comparisons (at least some of us have not forgotten that Barack Obama has accomplished NOTHING of any consequence in his entire career as yet--except get elected to be President)....

ndeed, it is a frenzy. This is not normal excitement or enthusiasm over an inauguration--even a very special or historic one. This is not even normal relief that now things are somehow going to be different. This is emotional excess that disguises a severe, disabling anxiety; an anxiety that has been tenously held in check by the psychological denial that came before. It is as if the bizarre national depression the media have been hyping for the last eight years suddenly flipped into a full-blown mania--with all the euphoria, grandiose ideas and plans, delusions of grandeur, wildly impulsive spending, irritability and inappropriateness one sees in an acute manic episode.