Washington Merry-Go-Round

IMMEDIATE RELEASE 26 October 2024
WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND
Today’s Events in Historical Perspective
America’s Longest-Running Column Founded 1932
Lady or the Tiger
By Douglas Cohn and Eleanor Clift         
 
WASHINGTON – In the classic Frank Stockton short story, an accused person is faced with two doors, behind one a lady, behind the other a tiger. Such is the fate of Donald Trump.
There are two types of leaders: the principled and the unprincipled. The latter sees a parade and steps out to lead it regardless of its purpose or his views. Donald Trump, a onetime pro-choice Democrat fits the bill, and it has led him to a Stockton choice.
The old saying is that politics is a contact sport, and victory may not go to the candidate playing by the Marquess of Queensberry Rules. But when the battle for the presidency is lost and won the winner is awarded neither the gold cup nor crown of laurels, but a power like no other power on earth.
With power comes choices: Door One or Door Two. This especially true for Trump. He cannot run again, so, there is no longer a campaign parade to lead, a fact that frees him to choose and be whomever he chooses to be.
He ran on a theme to Make America Great Again. The reality is that he ran on a campaign to Make Himself Great Again. Hence, the two doors. Behind Door One is George Washington. Behind Door Two is Benito Mussolini. But he does not know this.
Having no foundational principles, he may founder in a sea of uncertainty roiled by his selection of navigating pilots. So, as he approaches the fateful doors, these selections will be critical. Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon will guide him one way, and we have yet to see who will offer a different direction, a direction heavy laden with thoughts of legacy.
Unlike the Stockton story, Trump’s doors are connected, offering him the ability to move from one to the other, but the corrupting influence of power will forestall this from continuing when the elixir of one course or the other proves to be the most enticing.
Door Two is bulging with promises he need not keep. Will employers stand by as he deports their employees? Will economists be mute when ignites inflation with unwarranted tariffs? Will the anti-isolationist wing of his own party condone the disruption of NATO? Will the remaining non-MAGA Republicans tolerate his targeting of political enemies for retribution? Will governors allow him to mobilize National Guard units from one state to enter another state? This and more lay behind Door Two.
He may not be a student of Republican history, but he instinctively drew out various factions from his party’s past and led separate parades with promises to the isolationists, high-tariff, anti-immigrant, anti-government, law-and-order at any price wings. But he is free. He will never again need to promise them anything for their votes, votes they can never again cast for him.
This leaves the Door One option. It begins with decorum. He has an option to be presidential, exuding gravitas, thoughtfulness, empathy, and integrity – not qualities normally associated with the vulgar, brawling campaigner.
This man has spent a career fighting for power, money, and respectability. It began as the man from Queens seeking acceptance by the elites of Manhattan, and he has been battling ever since, always playing by his own rules. Now, the battle is over. He won. He has the Presidency, Congress, and the Supreme Court, and as Robert Frost might have said, “He can now take his road less traveled by.”
 
See Eleanor Clift’s book Selecting a President, and Douglas Cohn’s latest books The President’s First Year: The Only School for Presidents Is the Presidency and World War 4: Nine Scenarios (endorsed by seven flag officers).
          Twitter:  @douglas_cohn
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END WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND