Lord knows, Donald Trump is giving heart palpitations to friends and foes alike. But how does one explain the current hysteria and frenzy that President Trump is facing? Oh yes, in many cases, the President has been his worst enemy. But as Francis Menton of the Manhattan Contrarian points out, “Even though plenty of people disagreed with Obama on many issues, there was never anything like this.”

… I and many other conservatives and libertarians have plenty of disagreements with Trump — as to trade protectionism; as to whether a “balance of payments deficit” is a bad thing and whether such a thing can be “fixed” by “better trade deals”; as to whether a big wall on the Mexican border will accomplish anything meaningful for the money; as to whether massive “infrastructure” spending is a good idea; as to many details about immigration; and so forth.

But are these the issues that are motivating the desperate primal screaming that we have been seeing the past few weeks?  I don’t think so.  None of the issues just mentioned (with the possible partial exception of immigration) is the kind of thing that normally generates this kind of emotion.  The thing that generates such emotion is the push back against the bureaucracy and the parasites in government-funded agencies and academia.  Suddenly, many people who have spent their lives doing what they perceive as “good” with taxpayer-funded salaries and grants are being told that it was all a bad idea from the get-go.  Their funding could be cut!  Their lifetime sinecure could be gone!  They could lose their jobs and their livelihoods!  They might have to compete for jobs and customers in the private sector!  The Democratic Party could lose its taxpayer-backed funding (from public employee unions, particularly teachers unions)!

As President Trump’s cabinet comes together, we can only hope that we will get a chance to witness “an alternate vision of the world — a vision without bureaucratic micromanagement of every aspect of our lives…”

Read more from Mr. Menton here.