If the President Is Going to Be So Powerful, Can We Ask He Also Be Good?

The need for presidential character has never been greater, while the demand has rarely been smaller.

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With the Senate’s acquittal of Donald Trump on Wednesday, the presidency has reached the apex of its modern, peacetime power. Both parties—in impeachments spaced less than a generation apart—have demonstrated that partisan loyalty outweighs any independent duty to check presidential lawlessness or abuses of power. Presidents now have but one binding obligation—to win. Today’s French Press: 

  1. The greater the power of the president, the more we need him to be good.

  1. A necessary reminder that individual liberty can be a unifying force.

As Congress steps back, character steps up as a necessary presidential constraint.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Dave IL

    We can ask. We should also be doing everything we can to bring the presidency under control. We should face the fact that the expanded bureaucracy which prompted the APA is always going to involve an element of legislating and our best hope is to tear down the veil of secrecy so Congress, or at least the gang of four, has access to EVERYTHING the executive branch is doing.

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      Pat Riot

      I agree, but the exact opposite precedent was just ratified by the Senate. Trump and his successors will now block whatever they want from Congress with no fear of downsides. Since the Exec has the Treasury to raid and the agencies to command directly, that secrecy alone created a new era of executive power the likes of which the country has never seen.

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        Dave IL

        Yeah, my original post must seem terribly unrealistic at this point. I know David thought the president should be removed, so I don't mean to be hypercritical. The word "ask" just struck me as too conciliatory.

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    Chris Tingey

    What is disheartening about the situation we find these days is that character is lacking everywhere. It used to be something to admire if a man's word really was his bond. Now admiration is for winning, even if you have to cheat, lie, tell half-truths, bribe, hurt others and corrupt yourself. This lack of character so prevalent in society is reflected in our politics.

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    STM

    If we must rely on an all powerful president to be a good person we are in real trouble. The attraction of power is pretty much irresistible.

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  4. Ann G

    What is good? The left thinks it's helping and making you help too, and the right thinks it's winning. I am not sure being a participant in our political system is any longer an effective way to create positive change. Maybe it's time to remove myself from the sad, sorry mess.

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    Nathan

    I think there's also a spiritual aspect to this. I just reread the SBC "Resolution On Moral Character Of Public Officials". It's over 20 years old at this point, but it is newly relevant.

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    Ray Salemi

    Technical question: It’s seems replies to comments no longer have a “reply” link. So I can’t reply to a reply. Are other people seeing this?

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    Epl20

    The salient question to ask supporters of this administration: what could Trump say or do that would warrant rejecting him?

    I suspect there is a very high threshold for misconduct (by that, I mean unreachably high) considering the appeal of the transactional argument for Trump, but it'd save a lot more time if his defenders were at least transparent about it.

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    Michel Phillips

    MLK, in "Where Do We Go From Here?":

    "[O]ne of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites, polar opposites, so that love is identified with a resignation of power, and power with a denial of love. It was this misinterpretation that caused the philosopher Nietzsche, who was a philosopher of the will to power, to reject the Christian concept of love. It was this same misinterpretation which induced Christian theologians to reject Nietzsche's philosophy of the will to power in the name of the Christian idea of love...What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love."

    So I read today about a 2 year old appearing alone to defend herself in immigration court.

    "Obama would have nuked Trump from orbit"--a reference to "Aliens," the second movie in the franchise. It was the grow-inside-you-then-burst-from-your-chest aliens who should've been--but weren't--nuked from orbit. Yowza, what an apt metaphor.

    Still waiting for the Ripley equivalent to arise. Warren? Klobuchar? Sanders seems like more of an Obi-Wan Kenobi--wrong movie series.

    I hope this ends well. Doesn't look good so far.

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      Theirn Scott

      That's the good part of that speech. The bad part comes later. MLK for all the good things he did, was an economic socialist.

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    Paul Montagu

    David, I don't mind you talking about hoops or even Morant. It's been my favorite sport since I was seven, playing on a blacktop playground with chain-link nets on the mean streets of West Seattle (actually, they weren't all that mean back in the late 1960s / early 1970s). All I ask is that you join us deprived Seattleites in getting an NBA team back.
    Take my silence on the rest of your piece as agreement.

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    Theirn Scott

    "It's good to be king. But then we need the king to be good." Nice.

    The conclusion of your essay dovetails very well with my dystopic view of the future. But it ends well.

    When a Trump like socialist becomes president and Americans get to learn the practical lessons of socialism they will rediscover the founding documents, embrace classical liberalism and America will be reborn.

    You and I won't see this. Well, maybe we will if you're correct about the afterlife. Or rather, you will.

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      Pat Riot

      Why is Trump not a Trump like socialist already?

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