General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDavid Remnick, The New Yorker: It's Mueller Time
Found this thanks to a tweet from Laurence Tribe:
Link to tweet
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/01/the-increasing-pressure-on-donald-trump
The author, Fletcher Knebel, wrote a popular syndicated column in the nineteen-fifties and early sixties, called Potomac Fever, before turning full time to fiction. Night of Camp David was published the same year that Congress passed the Twenty-fifth Amendment, which clarified the procedure for removing a President who is no longer able to carry out his duties. Half a century later, Potomac Fever has reached new heights; for the past two years and two months, it has been hard not to think periodically about that crucial addition to the Constitution.
The Trump Presidency has, from the first, represented a threat to truth, liberal democracy, and the rule of law. Donald Trumps contempt for basic norms of governance is accompanied by a lack of decency, empathy, and psychological stability. This was never more evident than this week, when Trump, seemingly rattled by the imminence of the Mueller report, set off a fusillade of unhinged tweets, called the spouse of one of his senior advisers a whack job, raged about the late Senator John McCain in front of a military audience at a tank plant in Lima, Ohio, and pronounced the Democratic Party anti-Jewish, deepening, at every turn, the impression that he is unfit for government work.
The perils of such instability are incalculable. Sidney Karper, the wizened Defense Secretary in Night of Camp David, says of Hollenbach, It is sheer folly to have that man anywhere near the command and control machinery. In the novel, a self-appointed council of party leaders, Supreme Court Justices, and members of the security establishment secretly deliberates on how to deal with the delusional President, and catastrophe is averted. Hollenbach coöperates in his own removal from office, and, in the end, he is deemed to have the finest heart in America.
Current realities offer no such reassurance. Trump has the psyche of an emotionally damaged toddler. You hear this not only from his ideological opponents but from countless departing confidants, lawyers, and advisers. He is devoted not to public service but to feeding the demands of his ego and his appetites.
The pressures on Trump will inevitably increase now that the Mueller report has been delivered to the Attorney General. Meanwhile, a raft of investigators on various congressional committees and in outposts of the Justice Department are accelerating their searches into matters including hush-money payments, money laundering, irregular security clearances, foreign interference in the 2016 election, illegal use of inaugural funds, and improper use of foundation money. And yet it is impossible to imagine Trump changing his behavior. He retains the support of the Republican leadership; the odds of his completing his term are considerable. Trumps affinity for the autocratic likes of Rodrigo Duterte, Mohammed bin Salman, Jair Bolsonaro, and Vladimir Putin suggests that he might refuseas his former satrap and attorney Michael Cohen warned he wouldto give up power without trying to undermine the legitimacy of the American political system. Whats more, given Trumps skills in the dark arts of campaigning and the general public satisfaction with the economy, no matter its inequities or vulnerabilities, it would be foolhardy to discount his chance of winning reëlection.
-snip-
erronis
(15,241 posts)The coal-black front cover of the new edition is unadorned apart from one line, in white block letters: What would happen if the president of the USA went stark-raving mad?
scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)Thank you for posting this.
Very good read, but scary and depressing as hell.
ariadne0614
(1,727 posts)My first thought after reading this was, its way past time for disengaged, uninformed citizens to wake up and start paying attention. My second thought was, we get the government we deserve, and its looking like maybe we dont deserve a democracy.
PatSeg
(47,419 posts)have been too disengaged from politics and government for decades. I know I was until GW Bush, so yes, perhaps we have gotten the democracy that we deserve. Also I think history, political science, and government should have more prominent roles in our schools. An uneducated populace is going to be naive and gullible, vulnerable to impostors like Donald Trump. If it hadn't been Trump, eventually it would have been someone else.
History has warned us and if we don't heed that warning, of course we are doomed to repeat the same old disastrous mistakes. That said, I don't think it is too late, but hopefully we won't get through this and just settle back to our old mindless routines, "Whew, glad that is over. Really dodged the bullet that time!"
rzemanfl
(29,557 posts)Smart of them to reissue it. It took a long time to get the library system's copy. Someone posted here about the book months ago. Knebel co-authored Seven Days in May.