Charisma. You have to admit Don (not his real name) had charisma. Everyone liked Don. Indeed, it was hard not to like Don. Don was a sociopath, aka, a psychopath.
As a rule of thumb, whatever was said in group, stayed in group. But not this time. Don, without any attempt at humor, informed the group he intended to rape the night nurse. He didn’t use the word rape. He simply maintained he was going to have sex with her while she was on her shift, whether she wanted to or not.
I was shocked at his steadfast intensions. He wasn’t joking. Moreover, I was taken aback that he had the temerity to say this to the group. It was as if he believed I wouldn’t dare try to stop him, or knew that even if I tried, I would be unable to do so.
I was working at Holmesview Center, an all-male inpatient treatment center for alcoholism and drug addiction. I had been recently promoted from Recreation Specialist to Activities Therapist. The difference was an increase in pay, plus now I would be leading group therapy sessions. So when another therapist went on summer vacation, I took over her therapy group.
There was no question in my mind I needed to immediately inform the Treatment Director. But would he even believe me? Everybody liked Don, especially my boss, the Treatment Director.
Like many sociopaths, psychopathic tendencies are well hidden under a veil of benign conversation and camaraderie. Sociopaths are con men. Although they don’t care one iota about anyone except themselves, they read other people so well they can exploit their weaknesses with impunity. I was one of the first to really like Don. I taught him the card game I invented for the clients. He not only played the game with relish, he soon told me it was the best card game he ever played. (Of course, I knew I had invented the greatest card game ever, but few at the center were generous enough to say so out-loud.) He also played my boss, both literally and figuratively. The treatment director often joined in playing my card game with me and the clients, including Don. My boss believed he was the best card player who ever played my game. Don soon told my boss he never saw anyone else who was as proficient at playing cards as he was.
So I was nervous when I confronted my boss in his office about Don’s threat of raping the night nurse. To my relief, he appeared to take my charges seriously. Even so, he was reluctant to expel him from the community based on second-hand information. My boss looked at his calendar and told me this client was scheduled to leave the program in just a few days. He decided that we should simply turn down any request by him to remain in treatment for another thirty days, and instead let him only stay a few more days until his time was up.
I was disappointed, but there was little else I could do. A few of days later, his regular therapist returned from vacation. I found out later that Don told her how glad he was she was back as she was the only therapist who could help him. He had lamented to her that he got no help at all when I was the substitute group therapist. (Of course, the therapist knew she was the best counselor at the treatment center, but few had the insight to realize this, nonetheless say so.)
Then I found out that Don applied for a second treatment term of thirty days which was accepted and approved by the group. Officially, each therapy group decides who stays an extra term, not the treatment director. In actuality, the decision is usually made by the therapist and the client. Most of the time the therapist tries to convince the client another thirty days of treatment is advisable. Rarely does a therapist try to talk a client out of staying longer. Apparently Don conned the therapist into staying longer as he supposedly got no help while I was filling in for her.
So the next thing I knew, Don, who everyone (except me) likes and trusts, is signed up for another thirty days.
The good news is that the night nurse was never raped. The bad news is that Don bragged that he did have sex with her at the center, although he was lying. When the night nurse found out, and especially after she found out he wasn’t discharged after threatening to harm her, she quit. After this, the staff finally united and discharged the culprit from the program. Yet the damage had already been done. Thankfully it wasn’t worse.
Popular image of psychopath from “Gladiator”
Sociopaths have no empathy, no conscience, no remorse, and no consideration of the feelings of others. Their profit and pleasure matters more than anyone else’s loss or pain. I prefer the term sociopath over psychopath, because psychopaths elicit images of deranged mad men like the emperor Commodus in the movie Gladiator.
In real life sociopaths look far more likable, more like Bill Cosby.
So what does all this have to do with Donald Trump? Very simply, Donald Trump is a sociopath. This has nothing to do with politics. I detested the politics of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush; but these men were by no means sociopaths. However, Richard Nixon and Dick Cheney probably were. (When Nixon’s wife Pat said she couldn’t bear for him to run for president again, he informed her it wasn’t her choice. As for Cheney being a sociopath, I recommend seeing the new movie, Vice.) Yet today, Nixon is ancient history and Cheney is out of power.
However, Trump is definitely a sociopath and is alive and well and living in the White House. I used to recommend my psychology students read The Sociopath
Benign image of real sociopath
Next Door by Martha Stout. Maybe now we need a book called The Sociopath in the White House.
When Nancy Pelosi announced she had no intentions of impeaching Trump I was angry and disappointed. I admire and respect Nancy Pelosi; and up to this point was delighted with everything she said and did as Speaker of the House. Like a good Poker player, I expected her to hold her cards close to her chest, and not reveal her plans to “go all in” for impeachment until Robert Mueller released his investigative report—which presumably would greatly increase the power of the Democrats’ hand. Instead, she folded holding the stronger hand, saying Trump wasn’t worth impeachment.
What? Trump isn’t worth impeachment? We have a mad man in the White House. On any given day, you can read dozens of thoughtful factual diaries here at Daily Kos as to why Donald J. Trump is the worst President in the entire history of the United States.
My rebuttal is simple. The country is worth it.
“Do anything at all without feeling guilty”
Tuesday at our weekly anti-Trump resistance rally, some ultra-right-wing moron condemned our group in toto claiming their side (Trump supporters) don’t kill babies (support abortion.) Now who can argue with that? But when he said the American people wanted Trump to be President, my inner Political Scientist couldn’t resist telling him the American people wanted Hillary Clinton.
“Yeah,” he replied, “Then why did they put the Electoral College into the Constitution?”
“To maintain slavery.” I responded. My answer was only partially true. Since slaves in the South couldn’t vote, Southern states feared a popular vote would give northern states greater clout than electors based on total population, including slaves. It was also true that the delegates at the Constitutional Convention were hot and tired and just wanted to go home, so they dealt with the unfinished business of how to choose the President with an inadequate jerry-rigged compromise (the Electoral College), and kicked the can down the road, as everyone knew George Washington would be the first President for probably twenty years or more. No one at the time figured Washington would step down after only two four-year terms.
Mad Man in the White House
Yet one main reason many delegates were wary of a direct popular vote for President, is that they feared ignorant voters might choose a dangerous tyrant who had popular charisma—like Donald Trump. Ah, the irony. We got Trump because our founding fathers wanted to make sure we never got a President like Trump. Of course, in the late 18th Century, terms like sociopaths didn’t exist. Yet terms like tyrants and tyranny did exist, and the founding fathers were terrified that a despotic ruler could destroy their new republic.
We now have a despotic ruler who is destroying our democracy. This is no time for the Democrats to be timid. I know Pence is no picnic. I know that Impeachment in the House doesn’t mean Trump will be convicted in the Senate. Yet, our constitution, which gave us Trump via the Electoral College, also gave us the process for removal of an unfit President who commits high crimes and misdemeanors. There is no doubt Trump committed high crimes and misdemeanors, even if he didn’t personally collude with the Russians. It is the duty of the Democrats in the House to impeach Trump, regardless of whether there are enough Republican Senators with the courage to convict him. When attorney Atticus Finch, in To Kill a Mockingbird, was asked to defend Tom Robinson, a black man in the Jim Crow South who was falsely accused of rape, Atticus Finch didn’t reply that defending Tom Robinson would only divide the town; and besides, no white jury would ever find him innocent. Instead, he did what his conscience told him to do; it was his duty to fight for justice, no matter what the odds of success were.
Likewise, it is a miscarriage of justice if several of Trump’s underlings go to prison because they blindly did the bidding of Trump while Trump remains President without fear of impeachment. Now some may well argue that Trump is being investigated by the Democrats. Fine. But why do any investigation at all when before the investigation is completed you announce that regardless of what you find, impeachment is unwarranted?
Suppose Eliot Ness found out that after investigating Al Capone for murder and tax evasion, the government refused to take him to trial as it would only divide Chicago, and no jury there would convict him anyway.
Still, many are advocating the easy way out. Just wait until 2020 and let the voters get rid of Trump then.
There are two serious problems with this argument. The first is the assumption that Trump will lose. We have already made this mistake once. Trump will do anything to win, including cheating and throwing the election in his favor. Jeb Bush, as Governor of Florida, was able to give the Presidency to his brother, George W. I shudder as to think what Trump might try and be able to do to throw the election in 2020 if he is still President. Remember, Trump emulates Putin, who isn’t past poisoning his political opponents to remain in power. Remember, Nixon resigned because he was caught cheating to become president. What many don’t know is that his “dirty tricks” enabled him to become re-elected, even if the Watergate break-in itself was a failure.
We cannot afford to allow Trump to run again in 2020 if there is anything both moral and legal to do to stop it. Impeachment is both moral and legal.
Yet there is another telling reason why the Democrats shouldn’t hesitate to impeach Trump. We should not underestimate the damage he can do to individuals, the country, and to the entire world the longer he remains in office. Every day, innocent children remain separated from their parents. Every day, global warming and climate change increases the chances of future death and destruction from hurricanes, rising seas, massive fires, and heat-killing temperatures. Every day, the Trump administrations erodes personal liberties, corrupts our government, caters to the rich over ordinary Americans, destroys protections to the environment, aids and increases the power of our adversaries, weakens and antagonizes our allies, and increases the deficit threatening future economic security. Although theoretically the worse things get, the less likely Trump and the Republicans will win again; we can’t afford for anything to get worse than it already is.
My boss didn’t want to make a big scene expelling a personable client many people liked when there was evidence, but no proof, the client intended to rape a staff member. So instead he stalled, expecting the problem to go away in due course (leaving in a few days anyway.) Unfortunately, such “wise” hesitation had serious consequences. The nurse ended up having to quit her job after she realize she wasn’t safe at work. Thank God the consequences weren’t a lot more serious.
Donald Trump is a con man, a liar, and a cheat. In a word, he is a sociopath. Impeachment is the best option. The sooner the sociopath is out of the White House, the better.
