They’ve Gone Insane

Ben Stein’s Diary
They’ve Gone Insane
BEN STEIN     

And hating Trump hasn’t made them any nicer either.
I just don’t get it. People are going insane about Donald Trump being president-elect. It’s beyond the wildest anger and fear I saw even about Richard Nixon, my hero. And, as I say, I just cannot see it.

For example, this morning, I got several emails from men who had been my friends since high school. “America is going through its worst days ever,” said one letter. “We’re going to lose everything,” said another.

It gets even worse. A dear old friend — a woman who has been my close friend since the mid 1970s, a woman who never even liked Hillary Clinton much — has simply refused to speak to me since election night. Her daughter, the wife of a wealthy real estate developer, sent me hate mail election night, when she learned I had reluctantly voted for Mr. Trump.

Why are people so upset? What has Mr. Trump done that’s so awful? His choices for the Cabinet fall well within the range of the usual types — Wall Street, campaign helpers, ideological bedfellows. Despite what you may have read online, none of them has made horrible statements. None is a Klansman. None is a Nazi. They have different views from those of the ACLU, but that’s what you get in a free country.

The voters voted in a candidate with certain views. That candidate won fair and square. He gets to choose people he agrees with and who agree with him.


The media powerhouses and the morons on college campuses cannot accept that someone with views different from theirs will be president. They riot. They burn Old Glory. They stop speaking to me.

This is exactly the opposite of how a free country should be run. And besides, what can Trump do that will be so bad?

Suppose he does cut down on immigration. Hard luck, indeed, for farmers and ranchers and consumers, but what’s the problem for college professors and students? Suppose he appoints conservative judges. Times have shown over and over again that abortion is not going to be much restricted, no matter who is in the Oval Office. I wish Roe v. Wade would be overturned, but it’s not going to be.

Mr. Trump has not said one word against blacks. Not a single syllable. He has not said one word against gays. Not a peep. The charge that he’s an anti-Semite is a bad joke. His son-in-law is an orthodox Jew. His daughter converted to Judaism, with Trump’s blessing. They love him in Israel. What’s to complain about?

Yes, he has spoken too forcefully about illegal immigrants, perhaps. But they’re illegal. That’s the whole point. They’re not supposed to be here. And yes, he should not have talked the way he did about women and fame. But what he talked about is a trifle compared with what Bill Clinton did — and what Hillary defended him over.

The real problem is not Trump. The problem is the big, spoiled, sulking babies of the left who cannot believe that America made up its own mind instead of following their orders. They are the control freaks, not Trump.

Look, he wasn’t my first choice either. But he’s the guy now. Who does it help to scream and fuss and sulk, at this point? He’s here. He’s not queer. He won. You’ll have plenty of other chances to get even.

https://spectator.org/theyve-gone-insane/