THE OFFICE OF THE POTUS

History is a lamp to the darkness of the present.

Countless people, down the centuries, have asked about the qualities and attributes of the office of the President of the United States of America.

In 1790 John Adams wrote:

His person, countenance, character, and actions, are made the daily contemplation and conversation of the whole people.

Thomas Jefferson commented that:

In a government like ours, it is the duty of the Chief Magistrate, in order to enable himself to do all the good which his station requires, to endeavour, by all honourable means, to unite in himself the confidence of the whole people.

John Meacham, writing in Time, on the eve of the second anniversary of the 45th Presidency, reports:

It's clear that Donald Trump has no compelling interest in leading what the founders thought of as "the whole people."

President Harry Truman observed:

You can't divide the Country up into sections ... and you can't encourage people's prejudices. You have to appeal to people's best instincts, not their worst ones. 

Meacham again observes:

To Trump, the Presidency is a reality show. 

Meacham then chillingly observes:

What can we do in an era of rising white supremacy when we have a President who not only refuses to curb his sulphurous rhetoric but who threatens, as he recently directed, to "tone it up"?

Trump is determined to be a force for division, not for unity. He has no apparent interest in rising to the historical moment. To him, the presidency seems to be a reality show - a lark in which narcissism and nationalism are inextricably intertwined.

President Woodrow Wilson once observed:

The President is at liberty, both in law and conscience, to be as big a man as he can.

These quotations are all within an article written by Jon Meacham entitled "When Leadership Fails" and appears on page 30 of the UK edition of TIME dated November 12, 2018.

Ten months on, there is even greater stridency. Democracy is being pulled every which way, and populism and nationalism at times, reach a fever pitch, even here in the UK.

I am always loathed to draw comparisons with Nazi Germany. But growing up, as I did, in the long shadow of World War Two, I am only too aware of the "sulfurous rhetoric" of Hitler; of a man deranged, when faced with criticism, who instead not only promised, but actually did "tone it up", and with devastating consequences for millions.

And thus we come to this present hour, this present day, a year on, this Monday morning, September 28, 2020 …

IT IS COLD, IT IS STARK.

Liberty and Freedom, the great bastions of America have departed. A vain little man, one wont to pontificate, in love with the sound of his own drawling voice as he stands at the podium, or peering down from the lofty bench wherewith he feels it an important place to seat himself, waxes lyrical and warns President Obama that February 2016 is too close to the Elections in November of that year to make a nomination to the Supreme Court.

Four years on, this vain man, looking a lot smaller now, but whose voice, wobbly, is still in love with its pontificating accent … is strident. President Trump is, he demands, perfectly entitled to nominate a candidate, and what’s more, he, Mitch-Boy, will make sure that his party will vote for that nomination.

America long ago lost the respect of world opinion and the general public. Superpower it may be, but for how long? Wherever we look, America is in retreat. United States, but for how long?

It is incredible. I think back to the newsreel footage, to FDR over four administrations, to JFK, to RR. Always, there was the supreme dignity of that high office. I saw it still with President Obama.

Can that supreme office still be the same? Can the grandeur of The Oval still hold? Goodness! Even the celebrated TV series West Wing reassured us all of the dignity of that high office.

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But now?

I do not give much credence to the literal interpretation of Scripture, but I do recognise the beauty in the writing down four Millenia. So in that first, and most famous allegory, we have the LORD walking in the Garden in the cool of the evening.

Adam? Where are you?

I was hiding.

Why are you hiding?

We saw that we were naked.

Who told you that you were naked?

And having listened to the reasoning, He asked that most fearful question of all …

WHAT is THIS you have done?!!?

On this cold October morning, yes, Autumn turns the chill over here in the United Kingdom, and I find myself, and many others like me, thinking that same question as America receives the chill of Fall …

WHAT is THIS you have done?!!?

Or in my own language,

What on earth were you doing? What on earth possessed you all? How could you have put the entire Free World at risk, just like last time???!

14 October 2020
All Rights Reserved

© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2023

First penned ~ Thursday 5 September 2019 ~ and updated Tuesday 14 October 2020