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Understanding the peculiar perspective of the current Democrat-media alliance can be challenging, especially when it seems heavily influenced by what many dub as Trump Derangement Syndrome. This mindset often leads to a portrayal of reality that appears disjointed and detached from the facts.
Take, for instance, the case of Eric Swalwell. For years, he was celebrated as a liberal icon and considered a valuable figure within this circle, despite a reputation marred by alleged indiscretions and accusations of being a serial sexual predator. His story reflects a broader narrative often championed by the left.
Similarly, the political rise of Graham Platner, a Senate candidate from Maine, was heralded as a beacon of hope for reclaiming the support of the white working class. However, his candidacy was clouded by controversy surrounding a Nazi tattoo, which he alternately claimed was either a mistake or a result of brainwashing by the U.S. military.
The left’s portrayal of the current tensions with Iran has also been shaped by their unique narrative lens. When President Donald Trump issued a stern warning to the Iranian regime about potential repercussions for its repeated drone and missile attacks, he was harshly criticized and compared to a Nazi exterminator, with accusations of being intent on mass destruction.
When President Donald Trump warned on a Monday that the Iranian regime might face terrible punishment for its continued drone and missile attacks, he was libeled as a modern Nazi exterminator, hellbent on mass death.
When on Tuesday Iran relented and asked for negotiations, Trump suddenly became smeared as a chickening-out TACO naïf, overeager for peace.
Each day, the left tries to think up a new argument for American defeat, even as Iran suffers more one-sided damage.
Their idea is to embolden Iran to hold out, in hopes that Trump — under constant left-wing assault, international pressure to lower gas prices, and his own restive congressional allies — will fold, to be trashed by the left as a TACO again.
More preposterously, the left has peddled the fantasy that Trump’s demands for Iran to surrender its nuclear material copied the Obama Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the so-called Iran deal.
But who could deny that, under Obama, the deal empowered Iran to rearm even more rapidly with lifted sanctions, nocturnal cash transfers and the unfreezing of its assets?
In contrast, Trump is dealing with a prostrate Iranian military.
Begging a fully armed and defiant Iran merely to postpone its acquisition of a bomb is not the equivalent of dictating to a flattened Iran a series of demands that, if unmet, will lead to its veritable destruction.
Examine another fantasy: the charade of a Democratic effort to impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on silly charges of supposedly aiding an unauthorized war, reckless handling of classified information, obstruction of congressional oversight, abuse of power, politicization of the military and more.
Note that Hegseth, in a single year, fixed the years-long crisis of falling enlistment that he inherited.
He has now even exceeded recruitment targets by emphasizing that soldiers should concentrate on combat effectiveness and not on race, sex or sexual orientation.
His Pentagon oversaw the summer 2025 destruction of Iranian nuclear facilities (with no fatalities), the military extradition of Nicolas Maduro and the recalibration of a once-rogue Venezuela (with no casualties), and the current war that in a matter of weeks destroyed the military capability of the once-feared theocratic Iran (with 13 fatalities so far).
Compare that to the prior secretary, Lloyd Austin, who went medically AWOL without informing the White House that he was incapacitated for days in the ICU.
He oversaw the Pentagon’s historic misadventure in Afghanistan and constant unanswered attacks on US soldiers in the Middle East that emboldened Iran’s terrorist proxies.
No Republican called for his impeachment.
The war in Iran is not “unauthorized”; it has not exceeded the 90-day limit under the War Powers Act.
However, Obama’s seven-month unauthorized bombing of Libya, under the Democrats’ current logic, really was a “war crime” — as was his “unauthorized,” months-long predator assassination campaign on the Afghan border that killed 500, including four US citizens.
Finally, for over a decade the left has waged a coordinated, often extralegal effort to destroy the campaigns and presidency of Donald Trump.
What lawfare did the Democrats not sanction?
Trump’s first impeachment hinged on the hearsay evidence of a pseudo-whistleblower who connived with the prevaricator Adam Schiff — with the acquiescence of a partisan inspector general.
The Russian collusion hoax was orchestrated by Obama’s FBI and CIA.
Democrats perverted the legal system to wage four years of lawfare in five civil and criminal courtrooms.
Despite all that, we are now warned by Democrats like Susan Rice that when the left regains power, their vendettas to punish their enemies will restart.
James Carville advises the Democrats to keep quiet about their real plans upon returning to power: to pack the Supreme Court and end the 66-year, 50-state union with two new blue states, Puerto Rico and Washington, DC — all to obtain in an instant four left-wing senators and kill the Senate filibuster.
What is the one constant theme in this alternate left-wing universe?
No Democrat outlines an immigration agenda, a way to round up Biden’s criminal illegal-alien entrants, an energy plan, a pathway to balance the budget, anti-corruption measures to stop welfare looting or a new strategic roadmap abroad.
Instead, the party creates alternate realities that demand changing the system itself rather than working within it to appeal to the American voter.
Living with daily delusions and shrieking at the Trump demons raging in their collective heads is no way to run a country.
Victor Davis Hanson is a distinguished fellow of the Center for American Greatness.