Political Memes

This comment is exactly the lack of imagination and critical thinking I am criticizing. There are some structures and norms around the president that make its office less dangerous than a king. But not much less dangerous. He has much of the same powers. The ability to command the military and execute the law are the two most important, and we already saw how trump tried to abuse these powers in his first term. We were just lucky that many of his followers resisted. But will they next time? I think not. His new cadre has been selected with that in mind, and he’s made it clear he will dispose of or punish anyone who resists him.

What “everyone knows” is not what everyone knows if not everyone knows it. The office of the presidency is inherently vulnerable to the type of attempted power grab that Trump is currently enacting. There is nothing unusual or particularly stupid about his followers. They are just people who have been indoctrinated into an authoritarian cult.

Many people don’t know, but the earliest British kings were elected. But over time, the king gained more and more power until it became the tyrannical institution in our current imagination. The same happened in Rome with the rise of the emperor. And Hitler, and the Bolsheviks, and many many others. Most tyrants arise within systems that purport to be democratic.

A truly just and benevolent system of government must resist these attacks on it far more strongly. I believe we are seeing the gradual failure of the American system today. With luck we will fight off this attack and the system may limp on for a few more years. But without reforms to more substantially limit executive power, the system remains vulnerable. The office of the president is clearly the weak point, and if we’re smart we’ll think on how the powers of that office can be deconstructed and distributed more widely.