May 1 (the universal workers’ holiday), May Day! May Day! May Day! (the universal distress call) and Trump Derangement Syndrome (current universal pandemic). Put ’em together. And what have you got? Let’s see.

Trump Derangement Syndrome. It’s not a disease. It’s not an affliction. It’s not a disability. It is a sign of intelligence.

How do you know if you, or someone else, suffers from TDS? One sign is disagreeing with virtually everything Trump does. This does not mean disagreeing with everything he does only because it is Trump who is doing it. People with TDS would disagree with these policies and activities no matter who was the president at the time. But on the other hand, because Trump is the despicable person he clearly is, someone with true TDS would loathe Trump as a man and president even if his policies were more acceptable.

But, while it is incorrect to call TDS a disease, it is not incorrect to say we “suffer” from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Suffering is an important part of having Trump Derangement Syndrome. Without suffering, this condition would not exist.

As the days of the Trump administration add up, it appears more and more that TDS is a chronic condition. The problem with chronic conditions is that you get used to them, they begin to be normalized, you learn to live with them and you stop fighting. Hopefully, this will not be the case this November when the mid-term elections roll around. It does appear that, perhaps for the first time,  TDS is a contagious condition, that it can spread from one person to another, or perhaps from one group of people to another. And it is clear that the only cure for the condition is the removal (some would say the 86 without meaning anything violent) of Trump from public power and public view.

Therefore, fighting TDS does not mean learning to love (or like, or tolerate) Donald Trump and does not mean forgetting that you have it. Fighting it (ironically as it may seem) means working hard to promote the spread of this devastating and contagious condition until it affects the majority of people throughout all 50 states and reaches a critical mass, and then extirpating its cause.

How would I do it? I’d have bumper stickers, and buttons, and hats and t-shirts, all with variations of “I have TDS and I’m proud of it” on it. I’d sponsor ads (if I had the resources) on TV and social media promoting the spread of TDS. I would be relentless.

It would appear that the current spread of TDS should be sufficient to give the House and (hopefully) the Senate to the Democrats in November. But there are dangerous movements on the horizon. The Supreme Court’s recent decision regarding the Louisiana congressional district drawn to gives Blacks representation in Congress has declared the creation of that district 301.770.4787 null and void, unconstitutionally racially gerrymandered. The Voting Rights Act, necessary to prevent exactly what we are seeing now, has been eviscerated, and the certain and quick redrawing of districts not only in Louisiana but undoubtedly in other red states as well, needs to be countered. How do you counter it? Spread TDS – convert the unconverted, and convince those with latent TDS that they have to vote in November.

Today is May 1, May Day. May Day is a universal holiday (official in some 90 countries, unofficial in others such as the USA) celebrating and validating the working class over the financial elite. In the US, under president Trump, the financial elite is more elite than ever, they operate without even a patina of morals or ethics, and the rich not only get richer, but get unbelievably richer, while so many just struggle on. But where are the May Day observances, the parades, the writings, the speeches? The voices seem to be silent.

These two important events: the spread of TDS and the message of May Day should be combined. TDS should be spread through peals of “MAY DAY! MAY DAY! MAY DAY!”, always three times. It is a universal sign of distress. And the entire universe (the entire human universe) is today under great stress.

Digression: May Day and May 1 are not genetically related. May 1 as a workers’ holiday actually stems from the throwing of a bomb into Haymarket Square in Chicago in the middle of a strike demonstration in 1886, the strikers trying to secure an 8 hour working day. May Day (three times) as a distress signal was developed in the 1920s by radio operators as a distress call easier to say than SOS, and it derives× from the French “m’aider”, meaning simply “help me”. Who knew?

No one today in this country today is touting TDS, observing May Day, or shouting May Day three times. We have missed the boat. Our oppositional leadership has failed us. We need to regather our forces.