Reality TV Emperor Or President Of A Constitutional Democracy? - by Gene Lyons

The Emperor (of Lilliput) holds a stick in his hands,
both ends parallel to the horizon, while the candidates,
advancing one by one, sometimes leap over the stick,
sometimes creep under it backwards and forwards several times…
whoever performs his part with most agility, and holds
out longest in leaping and creeping, is rewarded with
the blue-colored silk…and you see very few persons
about this court who are not adorned with one of
these girdles.

–Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, 1726

Never mind that president-elect Trump and his keenest supporters have gone from boasting to whining in two short weeks. “Mommy, they’re making fun of me on TV. It’s not fair!” Nor that the world’s rudest man purports to give etiquette lessons to the cast of a Broadway play. Nor even that Trump appears on pace to set a new American record for the most campaign promises broken in the shortest time.

(Trump never settles lawsuits. Except when he does, paying $25 million in chump change to reimburse gullible students defrauded by “Trump University.” Given that he’s also the defendant in something like 75 additional lawsuits accusing him of everything from stiffing contractors to deceptive advertising, things could get expensive.)

Alas, Trump seems to confuse the presidency with being the emcee on a “reality TV” program. Or with being Emperor of Lilliput. It’s hard to say. It’s not merely the daily spectacle of veteran Republican hacks and flub-a-dubs like Chris Christie and Rick Perry being escorted into Trump’s garishly-appointed penthouse to perch upon his gilded chairs. The man clearly has no accurate idea of the powers of the presidency: what he can do and what he can’t as the elected leader of a constitutional democracy.

Consider the abandonment of his vow to prosecute “Crooked Hillary” Clinton for her imagined crimes. At campaign rallies, Trump led enthusiastic supporters chanting “Lock her up!” During their second televised debate, he promised Clinton to her face that “If I win I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation, because there’s never been so many lies, so much deception.”

Somewhat haughtily, Hillary missed an opportunity to inform Trump that the president of the United States has no such power. There are elaborate mechanisms in the law to prevent the president from meddling in criminal cases. And a good thing too. Do you really want to live in a country whose president can order his political opponents jailed? No, you don’t.

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