Opinion | Let us declare independence from a monarchial presidency

On Jul 4, 2024

On this Independence Day 2024, we find ourselves, as a nation, back under a monarchy’s hold on America. Credit this astonishing turn of events to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., plus the Supreme Court’s five other royalists who joined him to fashion a decision that bestows upon the American president immunity from accountability for “official” acts that might leave him open for prosecution were he an ordinary citizen. In her ferocious dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the majority’s decision makes the president a “king above the law.” So here we are, having defeated King George III in 1783, only to end up two centuries later with an American sovereign with powers that would make previous tyrants drool.

Were that not enough, the country is faced with the prospect of twice-impeached felon and former president Donald Trump returning to the White House. The thought of the mendacious, narcisstic, vengeful Trump with those powers is terrifying. Dismiss the notion that “there’s no telling what he would do.” We know better. Trump and his inner circle have told us what he’ll do.

It falls to people who cherish and live by democratic values to stave off that danger. The courts won’t do it. President Biden, healthy or otherwise, cannot do it by himself. Only we, the people, can do what needs doing, to wit: reject Trump and all that he stands for at the polls on Election Day.

Yes, votes are there to keep Trump out of the Oval Office, as they were in the previous presidential election. Trump, simply put, can’t win with only his base of MAGA supporters and fellow travelers, no matter how rabid they are.

Don’t get hung up for the moment on who should be the Democratic standard-bearer. There’s plenty of time to get that sorted out. And there is a rich field of possibilities, should Biden, upon reflection and after broad consultations regarding his health and ability to serve, decide that now is the time to hand on the torch to an able successor.

I trust Biden to make the right call. I became a Senate staffer around the time Biden joined the Senate in 1973. As with other Washington watchers, I have seen Biden’s victories and setbacks through the years. Joe Biden, above all else, is a patriot. He will do what’s in the country’s best interest.

Better to keep focused, and spread the word to family, friends and neighbors, about the world that awaits them if Trump takes the oath of office.

Prosecutions will warp into persecutions. Political foes, real and imagined, in the press and online and in the politicians’ suites, will be subjected to Trump’s whims and power. Pardons and clemency will rain down like manna on Jan. 6, 2021, insurrectionists. Russian President Vladimir Putin will once again have a friend in the White House and an ally against NATO and the West. Immigrants and people from Muslim-majority countries will face an aggressively hostile federal government. Civil rights and LGBTQ+ progress will grind to a halt. The economy will function on behalf of the haves, to the detriment of the have-nots and the left-out. Oh, sure, Trump will go all out to create “Black…