Judge Napolitano writes:
President Trump — like all his modern predecessors — has a buIly pulpit available to him. He has the means through which to mold the hearts and minds of people to do good and to avoid evil and he has the means through which, as well, to intimidate them into fear of challenging him.....There is a lot of wisdom in what the Judge writes here. The President needs to be restrained and a Democratic House will do that---only because they despise him and also because they want to gain the White House in the 2020 election. But a Democratic House will also launch investigation after investigation to ruin Trump and the Republican brand.
[The]cousins — self-restraint and human compassion —the presidential heart. I do not see them in this president.
They are not there when Democrats — of whom I have never been one — are branded as evildoers. They are not there when the often articulate words of public presidential critics — of which I am not usually one — are characterized as fake or treasonous or even the enemy of the people...
They are not there when this president appears to see every tragedy and embrace every event in terms of himself and his short-term political needs rather than defend the Constitution, which he has sworn to uphold. They are not there when he claims he can amend the Constitution on his own and deny birthright citizenship to babies born in America to undocumented parents. And they are not there when large and deep segments of the American populace are presidentially ridiculed and alienated rather than embraced and invited in.
What to do about this? The Donald Trump I have known personally for 30 years is warm, gregarious and bighearted. The Donald Trump I have seen this election season is angry, reckless and lacking in understanding.
His words have given comfort to the worst among us.
To be a successful president, he needs externally what he lacks internally — restraint. Restraint produces introspection and understanding and respect for the opinions of those who disagree.
In our constitutional system, exterior restraint on the president can come only from Congress. That means that Democrats — with whom I agree on next to nothing — if they win the House of Representatives, may actually save Donald Trump from himself because he will be constitutionally compelled to respect and understand and work with them.
A politically divided federal government is often frustrating and slow. Neither side gets all it wants... a divided federal government just might produce more understanding for more people — and perhaps some presidential self-restraint — and then the binding of many wounds.
That said, it is much more difficult to see how Trump is going to "respect and understand and work with them," if they win.
If the Dems win will Trump's energizer bunny battery finally run out where he simply takes to his golf courses and returns at night to the White House not to watch FOX news but ESPN? Or will he continue to fight, and how vicious will he get? These will be the questions after the mid-terms if the Democrats gain control of the House.
Trump has remarkable fight and toughness but this may be his final and biggest test. I fear if he decides to fight and get more vicious and show even less respect for liberty,
-RW
Gridlock FTW
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know RW, plus we could have all that 'cheap labor' libertardians like you fantasize about being let in to the USA without any checks or safeguards. I don't disagree with the judges points, but the fact of the matter is that press drives a lot of the hysteria because of their hatred. Hey, 'orange haired man bad, orange hair man bad and da rasis'. One good thing Trump did is show what a joke leftist are all of the time.
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ReplyDeleteJudge Napolitano sounds like a man who believes the U.S. actually has a meaningful two-party political system. I'm not sure this was ever true but its certainly not the case today. It won't matter a wit which party controls the House. Government budgets will continue to increase and Liberty will continue to decrease.
ReplyDeleteYes, we must show compassion to those that knowingly throw around false rape accusations against SCOTUS nominees and people who attempt to assassinate representatives at softball games because we don't want to be called racist or some other bad name. Talmudic logic 101.
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