“Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not”. — Jeremiah 5:21
For almost 250 years, the United States has been governed by people who accepted the teachings of John Locke and some of the other philosophers of the Enlightenment. They believed in the rule of law, not of men, and they believed that people were capable of governing themselves. That stood in opposition to the teaching of Thomas Hobbes, the author of “Leviathan,” who believed that people needed to be governed by an absolute ruler, i.e., a monarch or a dictator. Hobbes perceived democracy, where the people rule, as a prescription for anarchy.
Today, we have in President Donald Trump, America’s first rightful heir to the teachings of Thomas Hobbes, a 21st century Leviathan who rules by whim and for whom the Constitution serves not as a set of guardrails, but rather as an impediment to his obsessions. This column has no recollection of any president who ever claimed to run both America and the world or who ever claimed that he can do anything he wants. But his most rabid supporters claim that they like what he’s doing and therefore don’t much care how he does it or who he hurts in the process.
President Barack Obama issued an average of 35 executive orders per year. President Joe Biden averaged 41. Trump recently issued his 200th since January, and there’s no end in sight. The “rule of law and not of men” is fast becoming an antiquated notion as Trump continues to consolidate power in the White House and weaponize it in an attempt to control every aspect of American life from the arts to the universities to the Federal Reserve. But to date, most of the Republicans in Congress have been either complicit or too afraid of MAGA voters to stand up to Trump, and so our only hope for a return to constitutional norms is the federal judiciary.
All of the above, along with his distribution of “Trump 2028” and “Trump Was Right About Everything” caps, tells us everything we need to know: that his recitation of the Presidential Oath of Office, to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, meant nothing to this president. He governs by whim, intimidation, extortion and vindictive retribution, and he is constantly pushing against centuries of presidential norms and precedents.
Having taught courses in American government, economics and problems of democracy, and having published opinion page columns on the same topics for the past 40 years, I have finally, reluctantly, come to the point where I fear for the future our country as the stamp and tentacles of Donald Trump spread increasingly throughout our public and private lives. It is especially troubling to realize that an entire generation of impressionable school children are seeing such contemptable behavior in an American president.
Some readers may recall the 1940 Disney movie “Fantasia” where Mickey Mouse as the “Apprentice” put on the sorcerer’s hat and, unsuited to wield it, ran amok with its powers to the point of causing uncontrolled destruction. That’s Donald Trump in a nutshell, and it turns out that it’s he who is the apprentice.
Back in 2015, this column was deeply concerned about the potential of a Trump presidency but was willing to give it a chance to play out. I thought that the “Hitler” and “fascist” analogies were overwrought. I thought that it was what came to be called “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” In hindsight, and looking ahead, I realize now that I failed to see all of Trump’s potential for demagoguery.
Now, we appear to have a new form of TDS. It’s “Trump Deification Syndrome,” that is, defending, if not glorifying, him to the hilt no matter what, this rooster who takes credit for the dawn and blames other people for any unexpected storm clouds. By forbidding any internal opposition from his appointees and advisers, he has surrounded himself with sycophants and loyalists who will bend at the knee to kiss the ring and curry favor in fear of retribution. Trump leaves behind himself a trail of corpses, the many honorable and competent people like former Vice President Mike Pence who were not afraid to say that the emperor is naked.
This writer’s political philosophy is “classical liberalism,” a form of conservatism. That is the reason I oppose President Trump. I perceive him to be a “clear and present danger” to America and the world. But I’m not alone. There are some great conservative minds who also oppose Trump; perhaps the best example is Washington Post and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist George Will. The late conservative thinker and writer Charles Krauthammer once described Trump as a “carnival barker.” That’s about right. Everything with Trump is always “the best, the biggest, the first, or the greatest.” Predictably, he has described MAGA as the greatest movement in American history. Perhaps he’s not familiar with the abolitionist movement, the Civil Rights Movement or the women’s rights movement. More’s the pity.
Joseph Filko has taught economics and American government and lives in Williamsburg. He can be reached at [email protected].