Five Stages Of Progressive Grief

Sometimes it’s enjoyable to sit and think. Today, not least because it’s the last snowy day of the year and it’s comfortable to sit, safe and warm inside, and enjoy the precipitation outside.

While sitting my mind wandered around to the subject of grief and so before it wandered off again it seemed reasonable to jot a few thoughts down.

What started it was thinking about how quickly progressives have turned from believing that the Mueller report would finally provide them with the evidence needed to impeach Donald Trump and remove him from office in favor of Vice President Mike Pence and must be accepted as gospel, to claiming that the investigation was a sham and demanding that they not only receive the work product of the Special Counsel, but also all of the materials that went into its making. From demanding that republicans accept the conclusions of the report to loudly proclaiming that the conclusions of the report announced in the Attorney General’s four page letter stating the report’s principle conclusions can’t be trusted and that the public must have all of the materials in order that the matter be tried in the court of public opinion. Of course, the latter isn’t what they say, but that’s clearly their intention.

It got me to thinking about the five stages of grief. As promulgated by Ms. Kubler Ross those stages are Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. There is a modified version of the grouping that includes Shock at the beginning of the series and Testing between Depression and Acceptance that implies some rational thought in the later stages of the process, so that might not be applicable in this situation. But it seems to apply easily not only to the progressive reaction to the election of Donald Trump to the presidency, but also to the release of the Mueller report even though that report hasn’t been seen as yet. And anyway, it hardly matters what the report does say, as everyone already knows what it doesn’t say and that’s what’s causing all of the emotional distress. So the devoted are now transitioning from Anger into Bargaining. Chairman Nadler is trying to Bargain for some snippet of information he can use to fulfill his publicly stated promise to impeach the President made just after the 2018 elections. But the courts will leave them unsatisfied, and at some point it seems logical to think that they will have to move on to Depression and then Testing a way forward into Acceptance. But if the past is prologue this will not be the case, partly because of the progressive mindset, and partly because of our perpetual election cycle.

A more applicable version of the grief progression series is that every stage is Anger, and given the election year shocks of the Trump election and the Mueller Report, one can possibly have some sympathy.

Anyway, it’s interesting to see them twisting. The anticipation heightened by the soon to be released Department of Justice Inspector General reports regarding conduct of DoJ personnel in the run-up to the 2016 election.

But that’s just what an average guy thinks