This morning at breakfast I read an editorial in the New York Times raising the question “The One Question That Really Matters: If Trump Defies the Courts, Then What?” This is at least the 4th article they have posted that raise similar questions, along with a podcast from the New Yorker that asked the same thing.
But I am wondering if they are asking the right question.
I think it is not “if,” but “When.”
What happens when Donald Trump thumbs his nose at the judicial system in this country? What happens when he just ignores the courts saying that he has to spend the money congress has approved? What happens when he just eliminates departments of government? What happens when he sets himself up as the final word, the king?
When.
He is already doing that.
So what happens now?
We are in unchartered territory. Ever since George Washington stepped down, refusing to be king, our government has always relied on the morality and sensibility of our chief executive. Oh, there have been times when presidents have veered towards an empirical presidency, but they have always turned back in the face of the judiciary. Even Richard Nixon!
Does anyone think Donald Trump is going to turn back?
So what happens? What is the recourse? Who will stand up and say, for the first time to this infant king, “No!”
The story is told that as he left after adopting the constitution, Benjamin Franklin was asked by Elizabeth Willing Powel, "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”
His famous response, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
It is time to see if we can keep it.