Definition: To achieve defeat through acts of personal sabotage or by influencing others to do the same through your own affliction.
Every election, it seems, the voters of this great country get to witness a frustrating yet fascinating phenomenon that I call: Victory Derangement Syndrome (VDS). When election day draws near, the idiocy, the hypocrisy, the disconnect, the outrageous behavior, and the ever detrimental ability to say the wrong thing at the wrong time fills our newspapers, televisions, and computer screens.
Oh how I wish that this pervasive mental disorder only afflicted the politicians. But no, unfortunately those you may have relied on as pundits are sadly susceptible to this as well. To borrow a phrase from one of the recent offenders, they simply become unhinged; some much more than others.
Let’s start with the politicians. One shining example that many of us won’t soon forget: Allen vs. Webb in Virginia. Each candidate literally tried to out-stupid the other just weeks before election day.
Harold Ford, Jr. crashed his opponent’s press conference and showed his true colors; Dean Barnett provides a good link to this in his Weekend Round-Up.
How could I leave out Mark Foley? The offender resigns and is being investigated by the FBI. Does that matter to the girl-drowning, barrier smashing, drunk driving, pill popping, pot smoking, raping, perjuring Democrats? Of course not! Just weeks before victory is in their grasp they pound the issue to the point of absurdity and bring some much needed focus to their own Foley-like scandals through the wonders of liberal hypocrisy.
I will never forget this moment in my state’s election history. Ann Richards was running against Clayton Williams for Texas Governor. They were both at a debate or conference of some kind and Ann politely offered to shake Clayton’s hand. He rudely refused and stalked off. He soon lost the election.
If you look back you will see that these occurrences happen right before every election, on both sides of the aisle. It truly is as if these candidates are not in a race to win, but in a race to see who can achieve the greatest loss.
Those of you that follow politics, even rarely, know the symptoms in our candidates; but do you recognize them in our beloved conservative pundits? Here it can be just as serious but for different reasons, and here is where I won’t name names because I respect most of these people and realize they are suffering from Victory Derangement Syndrome, or VDS, and cannot help themselves.
Pundits make silly comments all the time; it is one of the things we so love about them. When they start calling for their side to sit out the election and not vote is where I draw the line between misguided statements and a true affliction of the mind (VDS). Some of the most intelligent and well read people, that I normally support, see victory within our grasp but choose to derail the entire conservative agenda because they disagree on a point here and there.
I had thought that any conservative who would sit out the election or vote for the other side were simply angered during a stressful time; but I now understand that VDS has reared its traitorous affliction and spread throughout our cowardly and unfocussed punditry. Again, mere weeks before election day.
To all conservative pundits and bloggers: At no time is it acceptable to sell your soul to the enemy within in order to make a point or validate your ideology. There are only two explanations. You have either allowed yourself to be railroaded by liberalism (another mental disorder) or you have managed to catch VDS. Stop licking doorknobs because you never know who touched it before you, and wash your hands thoroughly after being in close proximity to a liberal. I’m not a doctor and don’t have a cure for your dishonorable affliction; but I know who does. Paging Dr. Limbaugh and Dr. Hannity!
This is the difference between a candidate afflicted with VDS and a pundit: The candidate destroys himself and loses the election thereby hurting his district or state; the pundits destroy the country with uncontrolled emotional reactions from the peanut gallery disguised in the cloak of loyal conservatism.
Happy election everyone!