A once famous essay published in 1888 asked “Why Great Men Are Not Chosen Presidents.” It’s time to dust it off.
The writer, Viscount James Bryce, an English aristocrat writing for Europeans, made shrewd observations about the presidency that, in a more limited way, equal the still-famous work of Alexander de Tocqueville, “Democracy in America.”
Bryce found a great falling off after the deaths of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams — the two founders who writings define our republic. This result, he wrote, belies the confidence they had in the future.
“In America,” Bryce writes, “which is beyond all other countries the country of a ‘career open to talents,’ a country, moreover, in which political life is unusually keen and political ambition widely diffused, it might be expected that the highest place would always be won by a man of brilliant gifts.” (Back then, only men needed to apply.)
He gave three reasons. First, politics here attracts fewer talented individuals than in England or France, having no aristocracy and no “governing class.” That reason still holds; it’s an article of faith, or used to be, that anyone can become president.
The second reason is Congress, whose operations when it was the leading branch of government thwarted those who pushed too hard. That reason is long gone. Congress hasn’t functioning effectively since Newt Gingrich left town. He was the House speaker who ran against government almost as effectively as Ronald Reagan did in campaigning for president.
And finally, “No man stands long before the public and bears a part in great affairs without giving openings to censorious criticism.”
Enter Donald Trump. He’s the opposite of the 19th century statesman who told those urging him to run, “I should make a good president, but a very bad candidate.”
Trump is the opposite: a good candidate, but terrible president. His first term accomplished nothing worth noting, and his second will be no better, judging from his inaugural address, equal parts bravado and threats. The contrast between Trump and his immediate predecessor, Joe Biden, was crystalized in the dueling pardons just before and after the inauguration.
Biden gave pardons to those Trump threatened, over and over, for daring to defend the rule of law, present scientific findings about COVID and uphold the military chain of command.
They are, first, Liz Cheney, a Republican who lost her seat after serving on the House committee investigating Jan. 6, 2021. Second, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the CDC infectious disease specialist who Trump, after abdicating his own responsibilities, allowed to lead the pandemic response while offloading the rest onto the nation’s governors. And finally, Gen. Mark Milley, Joint Chiefs of Staff chair, who expressed regret after being coopted into a staged provocation as Trump posed with a Bible while protesters were being pepper-sprayed in Lafayette Park.
Biden said he acted not because these three, and many others, had committed any crime, but because Trump vowed prosecution and doubtless persecution.
On his first day in office, Trump pardoned or commuted sentences for all those who assaulted the Capitol on Jan. 6 at his bidding, the first time an invading force pillaged Washington since British troops burned the White House during the War of 1812.
And here we arrive at the genius of Trump, if it can be called that. He’s upended Viscount Bryce’s third reason, that unstinting criticism deters “great men.” Instead, criticism of Trump’s outrageous and illegal acts somehow redounds on those criticizing. To his followers, he can do no wrong.
Trump has validated a notorious comment Richard Nixon made after resigning the presidency over a far less serious scandal. He told an interviewer, “When the president does it, that means it is not illegal, by definition.”
Trump to a “T”: whatever he does, it’s “not illegal.”
We’re not far from the “Newspeak” of George Orwell’s “1984,” where lies can be defined as truth and vice versa. How did we get here? Not by Trump alone.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked conviction after Trump’s Jan. 6 impeachment because, he said, the courts would take care of it. The Supreme Court then scuttled a trial, inventing “presidential immunity” despite its absence from the Constitution.
We have a long four years ahead, discovering whether the Trump virus can be passed to a chosen successor or whether reality will reassert itself.
Bryce’s conclusion reads ominously, summarizing why the presidency disappoints: “First because great men are rare in politics; secondly, because the method of choice does not bring them to the top; thirdly, because they are not, in quiet times, absolutely needed.”
These are not quiet times; leadership is absolutely needed.
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