The day the Presidency died
We all know there is no President of the United States. There hasn’t been one since January. There’s a traitor illegitimately occupying the office, after having illegally conspired with a foreign enemy to seize power by rigging an election. Whether by impeachment or the 25th Amendment, before or after the midterms, he’ll be ousted eventually. We will move on. But today may have finally been the day that the presidency – the institution itself – died.
In the first several months after Donald Trump moved into the White House and we ceased having a President of the United States, the only emergencies and crises we seemed to face as a nation were the ones caused by Trump himself. The incidental crises, the ones that arise out of nowhere, beyond anyone’s control, had largely left us alone. Then came hurricane season, and with no President to speak of, Americans have predictably ended up needlessly dying. But now we’ve arrived at the Las Vegas shooting, and it’s no longer clear that the institution of the presidency even exists anymore.
American lives have been ruined and lost in Puerto Rico because of Donald Trump. At the same time, we saw how the nation was able to partially rise above not having a President. Individual states and cities and private citizens contributed to relief efforts as best they could. The rest of the nation was able to partially provide a practical response in the absence of the one that a President would have provided. Las Vegas, however, has turned out to be a different story.
Gun control sure would have helped, but it’s not as if the President was expected to personally save those people in Las Vegas from dying. Instead, in this kind of tragedy, what Americans desperately need from their President is moral, symbolic, courageous leadership. Donald Trump posted a weak tweet and a stupid video and then called it a day. We got nothing of what we needed, and at the end of the day we’re every bit as unnerved as when it began. We don’t know how this kind of leadership vacuum will be filled – because the office of the Presidency has never sat empty like this before – but as real life keeps happening, we’re about to find out.
That’s the problem, you see. One way or the other, we’re about to grow accustomed to not having a President in these kinds of situations. We’ll move on from the idea of having a leader-in-chief. Even once we’re able to legitimately elect someone to the office of President of the United States, will we listen to that person? Or will we have grown so accustomed to the vacuum, that the Presidency will no longer matter? Donald Trump will die in prison. It’s the death of the presidency itself we may need to worry about more.
