I’ve long argued that Donald Trump’s presidency will end poorly because he’s a person of bad character. I still think that’s true, though I very much doubt the impeachment trial now underway will result in his removal. Regardless of its outcome, his impeachment illustrates the damage bad character can do to the presidency, the culture and the constitutional order.
In monarchies and other systems built around one-man (or one-woman) rule, the leader’s quirks, obsessions or inadequacies cease to be any of those things, becoming fashionable attributes of greatness. Bad jokes that emerge from his or her mouth become hilarious; rudeness, strength. Mispronunciations become fashionable locution. The story of Castilian Spaniards replacing the “s” sound with a “th” sound (“therveza” instead of cerveza) to accommodate King Ferdinand’s lisp is myth, alas (or “alath”). But the moral of the story stands.
We’ve seen something similar happen to large swaths of the GOP. Because Trump is unteachable about how the presidency and our constitutional system are supposed to work, politicians and media figures have dropped their long-held views on foreign policy, the national debt, trade and even the need for basic civility in order to get in sync with the president.
Arizona Sen. Martha McSally’s outburst on Thursday is just the latest example. When asked by a CNN reporter whether she’d support allowing witnesses at the impeachment trial, this once sober-minded politician called him a “liberal hack,” opting to create a viral social media moment perfectly suited for cable news preening and digital fundraising.
A new book by Washington Post reporters, ” A Very Stable Genius,” recounts in alarming detail how early members of the Trump administration struggled to teach the president the rudiments of the job of commander-in-chief, only to be rebuffed as “dopes and babies” because they didn’t see our international alliances and military assets as an opportunity to turn a profit. Two years later, he’s surrounded by a coterie perfectly happy to let Trump be Trump.
The impeachment drama itself stems from the fact that no one can convince the president that the presidency is more than the whims, desires and ambitions of the person occupying the job.
Unfortunately, the responses from Democrats, much of the media and opponents of the president, although emotionally understandable, have often served to compound the damage.
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Trump could have avoided impeachment had he governed, from the start, as a servant of all Americans, whether they voted for him or not. But that option was no option at all, because his character would not allow it. Now we are plunging further into dysfunction because the presidency was never designed for a man who could not comprehend what it means to be presidential.
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"Trump could have avoided impeachment had he governed, from the start, as a servant of all Americans, whether they voted for him or not," writes @JonahDispatch.
"But that option was no option at all, because his character would not allow it."https://t.co/KlD7pedP9D
— L.A. Times Opinion (@latimesopinion) January 21, 2020
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