It originally occurred to me while watching the Republican Convention that the entire party appears to be suffering from a collective version of narcissistic personality disorder. I left a comment on the matter in one diary or another at the time.
I'm reintroducing this in light of the ongoing Republican threats about the economy, specifically related to what will happen if we don't go along with the $700 billion bailout. They even trotted out the reclusive Sarah Palin on the matter the other day: if we don't do the $700b bailout, she said, we're in for a Depression.
Wasn't it just a few days ago that Hannity was goading her into slamming Obama for daring to say publicly that the economy was in serious trouble? She now has no trouble saying the economy's in an even graver state--but note how she does it. With a hefty dollop of fear and threat. Same with McCain's latest ploy: do the bailout, or no debate. It's the Republican way: do what we want, OR ELSE. They are not interested in stating or discussing facts. Their only motivation is propping up their own grandiosity and power. It would be sad if it weren't so debilitating to our country. Sad because it's mentally unbalanced.
Let's call it Narcissistic Party Disorder, and it poisons our political discourse, much the way an individual with Narcissistic Personality Disorder poisons his or her interpersonal discourse.
This is how the Republicans bully America. They don't just say "Iraq is a potentially dangerous place"; they say "Iraq will blow us up if we don't invade them." They don't just say "The economy's in deep trouble"; they say, "We're in for a Depression if we don't get our bailout plan passed." They believe they have ultimate answers, they believe no one else has anything important to say, and they willfully (if often unconsciously) exploit others to maintain their own sense of grandiosity.
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), a person may be suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder if consistently exhibiting at least five of the following characteristics:
- has a grandiose sense of self-importance
- is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
- believes that he or she is "special" and unique
- requires excessive admiration
- has a sense of entitlement
- is interpersonally exploitative
- lacks empathy
- is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her - shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes.
The Republicans, particularly under the Bush Administration, have become incapable of dealing with anyone who doesn't agree with them. As Democrats we all know that gut-churning sense of frustration we feel when we bump into the unreal, irrational, unresponsive-to-actual-reality points of view espoused by Republican officials and echoed by Fox News and others in the echo chamber. Seen through this filter, the behavior--still inexcusable--makes an unnerving sort of sense.
Palin's tossed-off "You better do this, or else" comment is par for the course here. Go down the checklist: grandiose sense of self-importance, check; fantasy of unlimited success and power, check; belief that she is special, check; sense of entitlement, check; interpersonally exploitative, check and double check.
That interpersonally exploitative part in particular gives birth to that all-too-familiar ploy of creating fear with an implied threat that only they can then offer protection from. To raise a reptilian-brain-oriented fear completely exploits a normal person's emotional state; to assure the world that only you can protect them from the very spectre you yourself have raised is a bullying tactic that feeds off this exploitation, fueled by a number of the other NPD traits (grandiosity, arrogance, sense of entitlement, etc.). There's never any room for an alternative view, never any doubt that the hypothetical fear that's been raised is anything but very real, never any doubt that the only chance we have is for them to do what they want.
Interpersonally speaking, there is not a lot of immediate hope for improving a relationship with someone suffering from NPD; typically one's best strategy is to remove oneself from the person's presence. A person with NPD holds all these beliefs and feelings below his or her conscious awareness, so confronting them on any of it becomes an exercise in futility and frustration. Maybe most disconcerting of all, on an interpersonal level, someone with this disorder person really and truly does not care about you, and any extra effort you take to try to get them to understand you serves only to frustrate them.
In the political realm, obviously the best strategy is to vote them out of office. This becomes particularly difficult, however, to the extent that their "preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited power" and "sense of entitlement" vastly increase the chance that they will not merely sit back and let a valid election take place without an incredible amount of deception in both word and deed. All the while, as noted, our political discourse is poisoned and, possibly, if it goes on too long, seriously damaged for a long long time.
Sorry, I wish I had a better action plan. Ideas are welcome.