"Presidential Greatness Survey"

Bizarre document expression of a demoralized nation

A social scientist at the University of Houson named Brandon Rottinghaus just published the results of his “2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey” in which survey participants were asked to rank U.S. presidents from the greatest to the worst. The survey method is described as follows.

The 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey was conducted online via Qualtrics from November 15 to December 31, 2023. Respondents included current and recent members of the Presidents & Executive Politics Section of the American Political Science Association, which is the foremost organization of social science experts in presidential politics, as well as scholars who had recently published peer-reviewed academic research in key related scholarly journals or academic presses. 525 respondents were invited to participate, and 154 usable responses were received, yielding a 29.3% response rate.

According to the published results, survey participants ranked Lincoln #1 and Trump dead last at #45. President Biden was ranked #14, just below Madison, Clinton, and John Adams.

Writing about their survey results in the LA Times, Mr. Rottinghaus and his co-author stated:

Biden’s most important achievements may be that he rescued the presidency from Trump, resumed a more traditional style of presidential leadership and is gearing up to keep the office out of his predecessor’s hands this fall.

This is a notable expression of Trump Derangement Syndrome. In other words, it doesn’t matter what Biden does in office, as long as he occupies it at the expense of Donald Trump.

This reminds me of a ski accident investigator who told me about a strange phenomenon that he often sees at play in skiing accidents. Many times, an accident victim will—up to a few seconds before the collision—SEE the object he is about to collide with and become mesmerized by it right up to the point that he smashes into it.

Those suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome are totally mesmerized by Donald Trump and seem unable to evaluate anything independently of him. Their bizarre obsession and the destructive choices arising from it have put them and the rest of the nation on a collision course with something akin to a sheer granite wall. They are apparently going to hold their collision course and stare at the wall right up to the moment of impact.