Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSBP) is a serious mental illness.
It occurs when a caregiver makes up or causes an illness or injury in a person under his/her care.
Because vulnerable people are the victims, MSBP is a form of child abuse or elder abuse. Sufferers of MSBP often bring those they are caring for in for treatment “just in time” to be treated for injuries they have caused. Of course, they do not disclose they are the culprits.
It is quite difficult for medical professionals to see what is going on until time has passed and a pattern has been established.
Mental illness of any kind is a serious issue and one worthy of more support and attention from both political parties. But it is hard not to argue that Democrats are engaged in a sort of MSBP when it comes to governance in the first six months of 2021. Here’s how.
First, Congressional Democrats passed, and President Biden signed a third stimulus in March. No Republican voted for it. Vaccinations were ramping up, and the pandemic was easing. Many economists feared sending a third round of checks ($1,400 per person) to most Americans in a growing economy coupled with $300 federal unemployment bonuses not to work through September would cause inflation and encourage sloth. Both have occurred. Inflation is at a 13-year high, and there are over 9.2 million job openings nationwide, a record.
Ask anyone who shops for food or fills their gas tank what they think of it all.
You’ll get an earful, and those old enough to remember the Carter years are especially scared. Further, ask businesses of almost any size about recruitment.
They’ll explain they simply cannot compete with the federal government paying folks to stay home. The entire bonus not to work concept was unfair and cruel from the get-go, not only to the overall economy but to the individuals being paid, as they are losing valuable skills while they sit out of the workforce.
But Biden and the Democrats have solutions for the soaring prices they have caused. They support more federal programs, naturally. The Biden Administration has increased food stamp payments and even eligibility, including to those with higher incomes and savings that the Trump Administration tried to curb from the dependency the program creates.
Second, Biden nixed the Keystone Pipeline and the jobs it supported, making us less energy independent. At the same time, he allowed Russia to complete their pipeline in Europe. The solution to this appears to be a $3.5 trillion infrastructure plan, one that not a single GOP Senator voted for this week, as there is no actual bill. No one suggests our roads and bridges are in disrepair, but spending and debt of this magnitude in an already inflationary economy? Democrats claim their infrastructure program is a “Jobs” plan. But there are already 9.2 million openings for which few are applying. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) likened the infrastructure price tag to “pouring gasoline on a fire.”
Third, Democrats have been on a defund the police campaign for a year. Many at the state and local level eliminated cash bail and implemented lighter sentences on a host of crimes years ago. What have we gotten from this war on law enforcement and fewer prosecutions? More lawlessness, of course. The viral video of two individuals with their hands and duffel bags full of merchandise brazenly walking (not running) out of a T.J. Maxx in Los Angeles this week is the national poster child for all that is wrong with soft on crime and no consequences approaches.
How are Democrats answering to the rising crime waves? They say with straight faces that Republicans are the ones defunding the police. What? Who would believe that one even for a minute?
Congressional Democrats are calling for more gun laws. It’s a predictable go-to policy and a perennial favorite of theirs. But Democrat mayors and governors are beginning to get scared of voter retribution, including California’s Gavin Newsom, who is facing recall. He took to the microphones to announce a crime task force this week.
So there you have it. Democrats create problems and then swing in with solutions to appear being the savior of the people. It’s a sickness. It’s Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. Of course, Dr. Lyle H. Rossiter, Jr. wrote a book on the subject ten years ago entitled The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness.
Amazon’s review called the book “the first in-depth examination of the major political madness of our time: the radical left’s efforts to regulate the people from cradle to grave. To rescue us from our troubled lives, the liberal agenda recommends denial of personal responsibility, encourages self-pity and other-pity, fosters government dependency, promotes sexual indulgence, rationalizes violence, excuses financial obligation, justifies theft, ignores rudeness, prescribes complaining and blaming, denigrates marriage and the family, legalizes all abortion, defies religious and social tradition, declares inequality unjust, and rebels against the duties of citizenship.”
That was 2011 when Barrack Obama was president. This is all even more true in Joe Biden’s vision of America in 2021.
Jeff Szymanski works in political communications at AMAC, a senior benefits organization with 2.4 million members. He previously taught high school economics for 15 years.