It is impossible not to be
fascinated by Donald Trump’s focus on himself. You can’t write anything new
about his egotism, his bragging and re-bragging, his historical fantasies where
he plays the star, because it’s all been done so often.
So let’s take that as a
given. When Donald Trump talks or writes books or sends Tweets, he can’t stop
talking about himself in ways unique
to him. “I will be so good at the military your head will spin.”
Every president and
presidential candidate is an egotist, believing that the whole country should
vote for them to hold the highest office. No other person matches the power, the
attention from the whole world, the gravity of the American President. The
Presidents I have seen have all been judged by their character as much as by
their political success. The character of our possible leader is one of our
most important political questions.
American presidents have
never become The Leader, Il Duce or Der Führer. The system of checks and
balances is a big idea that high school kids must learn about American
government. The founders knew no models to teach them about separation of powers
or national democracy. They made them both up and they’re still working.
Perhaps not working so well
now. Yet the political struggle between a Republican Congress and a Democratic
President over the past 21 years has led neither to economic disaster nor
military intervention nor coups d’état. The closest we have come to national
breakdown were the two government shutdowns by the new
Republican majority against President Clinton in the fall
of 1995. It happened again against Barack Obama in 2013.
Most Americans rejected
these shutdowns and blamed
the Republicans.
The Republican Congressional
refusal to consider President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court is
symptomatic of the current deadlock, but also of the importance of the Supreme
Court as the appointed adjudicator for these fundamental disputes. The Supreme
Court acts independently of the other two branches, and can stop them both in
their tracks. No other country has lived for so long under such a system of
separated and balanced powers.
We need to be sure that a
President has the temperament, the character, and the spirit to be one leader
among many, to seek consensus, to stay within the rules which make the
President one of three co-equal powers.
Donald Trump has shown only
disdain for our system. No candidate for President has ever personally insulted
so many people in government as Trump. Trump’s insults show no respect for the
other players in the political process, neither legislators nor judges.
Late-night comics are amused
by Trump’s constant refrain that he is the best at everything. But that kind of
fantastic self-esteem, superiority in every way, and contempt for what anyone
else has to offer will not long abide sharing power, being thwarted, being
criticized, being out-smarted by other political actors.
Trump scorns democracy as
weakness. He mocks the inability of both Republicans and Democrats to break
through their stalemate with some powerful stroke. They’re all stupid for not
being able to do what he does all the time – lay down the law. Trump’s idea of
leadership is strength. His epithets for other politicians are all about
stupidity and weakness.
And who is Trump’s model
leader? Vladimir Putin. In September, Trump told Bill O’Reilly, “I will tell
you that I think in terms of leadership, he's
getting an A, and our President is not doing so well.” On MSNBC’s “Morning
Joe” in December, he was asked about the connections between Putin and the
murder of journalists and political opponents. “He’s running his country, and
at least he’s
a leader, unlike what we have in this country. . . . our country does
plenty of killing, too.” In the March 3 Republican debate, he denied that he
had expressed admiration for Putin at all: “Wrong,
wrong, wrong.” A week later, in the next debate, he said, “I think Putin’s
been a
very strong leader for Russia, he’s been a lot stronger than our leader,
that I can tell you.”
What has Putin done as
Russia’s leader? His troops invaded neighboring Ukraine and shot down
a Malaysian passenger plane. The ruble has lost half its value against the
dollar in the past two years. The national economy contracted by 4% in 2015,
and it’s
worse this year. The Russian stock market has lost two-thirds of its value
since 2007.
The American government
considers Russia to be “a corrupt,
autocratic kleptocracy centered on the leadership of Vladimir Putin, in
which officials, oligarchs and organized crime are bound together to create a
virtual mafia state”, according to secret communications leaked by WikiLeaks. Russia’s
entire track and field team has now been banned from the Rio Olympics because
of their national
policy of doping and deception.
Putin turned Russia’s young
democracy into a one-party state with a puppet
legislature and heavy censorship. Maybe what Trump especially likes is the
cult of personality that Putin has created for himself.
Putin has been a disaster for
Russia and a danger to the world. Trump thinks he’s great. He would be a
disaster for our balanced democracy.
Steve Hochstadt
Jacksonville IL
Published in the Jacksonville
Journal-Courier, June 21, 2016
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