When America was established by winning a war against a monarchy, our first instinct might have been to create our own king. Some the smartest men in the room said no, however, and invented the job of president: a leader who listens, not simply because he wants to, but because the people and the law says he must.
Human nature being what it is, the president still sometimes wants the power of a king, and when those charged with preventing that increase in autonomy fail, the president gets a little more kingly. This has been happening for centuries, but maybe never more than in the last 25 years.
So here we are with a president never more unrestrained, never more able to bend the country to his will, never more dangerously close to dictating than listening.
It’s been said that “in a democracy everyone gets with the majority deserves.” We do seem to have voted for this gradual expansion of presidential power, but was it all in service of a new American monarchy?
Hopefully we still deserve something more than a king.