The President of the United States is considered the most powerful person on Earth.\u00a0 That power emanates from the U.S. Constitution, the clout of being head of a political party and interest groups that helped elect him, and the nation\u2019s economic and military might.\u00a0 All combined, a President is incredibly powerful.<\/p>\n
But like the comic book superheroes, having the power also comes with the responsibility to use it wisely and with restraint.\u00a0 When it comes to President Trump, there has been too little wisdom or restraint.<\/p>\n
President Trump has been using his power.\u00a0 He has dramatically changed the nation\u2019s policies toward immigration, withdrawn from international agreements, fundamentally re-shaped the courts, advanced legislative initiatives, and reversed public health and environmental regulations.\u00a0 All of that is in keeping with his campaign promises and, as a result, the President enjoys near unanimous support among members of the Republican party.<\/p>\n
Being a President though is not just about popularity among members of your own party \u2013 it\u2019s supposed to be about serving the public \u2013 everyone.\u00a0 And here his policies have been lacking.<\/p>\n
Take for example the President\u2019s approach to climate change.\u00a0 Unlike other issues in which there can be arguments on both sides, the President\u2019s approach has been to reject science itself.\u00a0 There is no doubt that the planet is heating up and the vast and overwhelming majority of climate scientists believe that human activities are the primary cause.\u00a0 Even the secret research of the fossil fuel industry long ago concluded that the burning of oil, coal and gas heats up the planet.<\/p>\n
By rejecting science, the President not only is sentencing millions to incredible misery and early deaths, but his policies are accelerating climate changes that may seriously damage civilization as we know it by the end of the Century.\u00a0 His approach is reckless and dangerous.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the recklessness that is also reflected in the President\u2019s abusive rhetoric in attacking his political opponents and, in particular, the media.<\/p>\n
His tweets includes phrases that describe reporters as \u201cvery unpatriotic,\u201d \u201cdisgusting and dishonest people,\u201d who indulge in \u201cfake news.\u201d \u00a0Those attacks are not only vulgar, but dangerous.<\/p>\n
One example of the danger: covering a Trump rally these days opens reporters, now more than ever, to jeers, middle-finger insults, and threats of violence. \u00a0Many have to be protected by their own \u201csecurity guards.\u201d \u00a0CNN\u2019s Jim Acosta, who covers the White House, said he was \u201cvery worried\u201d by the \u201chostility whipped up by Trump.\u201d \u00a0MSNBC\u2019s Katy Tur told her viewers that she has been threatened with \u201crape\u201d\u2014and worse. \u00a0A reader warned New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, \u201conce we start shooting you f\u2014ers, you aren\u2019t going to pop off like you do now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The danger goes beyond those faced by reporters, it extends to our democracy.\u00a0 It is clear that the President\u2019s goal is to undermine the credibility of the mainstream media to weaken the impact of honest reporting covering his policies and to weaken the impact of reporting of the current Justice Department probe into his campaign\u2019s alleged cooperation with the Russian government in the last Presidential election and whether the president obstructed justice in firing the head of the FBI.<\/p>\n
The President\u2019s approach may work if the Justice Department\u2019s special counsel, Robert Mueller, issues formal charges against the President\u2019s campaign or the President himself.\u00a0 The President has now positioned himself \u2013 at least among his supporters \u2013 to be believed if he responds as expected by charging that the investigation is the result of a partisan attack, one which is the result of a \u201cwitch hunt\u201d and must not to be believed.<\/p>\n
Because the President has a strong following within his political base, it is likely that they will believe his statements that the charges are the result of an unfair conspiracy, not the truth.\u00a0 Given current Republican control of the Congress, strong support may allow the President to avert the damage of a negative report from the special prosecutor.\u00a0 Of course, if no such report is issued, none of this will matter.<\/p>\n
However, if the report is negative, and if the Congress refuses to act, where then is the rule of law, the idea that no person stands above the law, a pillar of American democracy?<\/p>\n
It is the rule of law that is the foundation of our democracy.\u00a0 Freedom of the press is enshrined in our Constitution.\u00a0 If the President \u2013 or his top associates \u2013 are able to avoid punishment as the result of the manipulation and intimidation of the media, the nation loses and our democracy is damaged, forever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The President of the United States is considered the most powerful person on Earth.\u00a0 That power emanates from the U.S. Constitution, the clout of being head of a political party and interest groups that helped elect him, and the nation\u2019s economic and military might.\u00a0 All combined, a President is incredibly powerful. But like the comic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2102"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2105,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2102\/revisions\/2105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}