This is Madness

The mad king is among the most frequently recurring themes of history and literature alike. A whole crowd of Shakespeare’s royal figures struggle with mental stability. His heirs and imitators alike, by the hundreds, have treated the same subject. History is replete with Caligula, Henry VI, George III, and Hitler. In our own time we’ve seen despots from Josef Stalin to Idi Amin, drunk with power and consumed by bloodlust. All these stories end badly, of course, and often with the loss of many lives.

Well, here we are. Donald Trump’s title is not king, but he thinks he’s one, he acts like one, and nobody’s stopping him. His followers are fine with it, many of them right down to the bizarre and primitive theory of divine right. That’s why we have No Kings Day — not to prevent royal rule, but to turn the clock back to when we didn’t have it.

Madness is hardly a scientific term, and normality is kind of a fluid and debatable thing. That said, Donald Trump is, quite obviously and inarguably abnormal, as well as extremely dangerous. Our system, though, like all those of myth and history, is set up to deny, ignore, or accommodate the madness of a chief executive. We did it when Woodrow Wilson was disabled by a stroke. We did it for quite some time when Richard Nixon was drunk and deranged. Quite unforgivably, Joe Biden’s family and staff did it, covering up the worst of his decline until it was too late for his party to recover. We’re doing it now, as Trump’s warped mind tells him he’s winning an unwinnable war in Iran that threatens to plunge the entire planet into depression or even world war

What’s worse, if we managed somehow to ditch Trump, we’d have J.D. Vance. At best, he’d be Claudius, who looks kind of okay in history only because he followed Caligula.

Or maybe it’s possible for Congress to re-assert its prerogatives. They can’t stop the madness, but they can, at least theoretically, put a stop to some of its expressions in public policy, including the insane mass murder going on in Iran. They can, that is, if their constitutional powers are enforceable.

Trump, who is almost entirely ignorant of history, as well as science, economics, literature, and everything else he should have learned in school, does understand one thing. He understands how the despots of history have consolidated their power and destroyed all the rules that bound them. He’s followed in their muddy footsteps, intimidating everyone in his own party who might disagree, firing everyone in the military and law enforcement who might want to perform their duty with regard to his actions, and demonizing the opposition to a point of abject weakness.

Often we speak of the Constitution’s “guarantees” of rights and processes. I think we’re going to find out, pretty soon, what they’re worth.