An Insidious and Contagious American Presidency: Note for a Discussion, "E Pluribus Unum? What Keeps the United States United."

Roger Cohen, The New York Times, Oct. 5, 2018

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Excerpt:

Contagious is the man. Contagious is Trump’s view that judges should be agents of those who appoint them rather than the independent guarantors of America’s constitutional democracy. Trump wants loyalty from Kavanaugh, too, and the angry, emotional testimony that the judge provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee carried this subliminal message: “I am one of yours.” It was right out of the Trump playbook.

The Supreme Court is the ultimate arbiter of the rule of law. It was conceived as a critical part of the political system, not as just another venue for ordinary, ugly, polarized politics. Kavanaugh’s confirmation would be the capstone to a shift in that direction. Courts were meant to be America’s great levelers, not their great dividers and inciters. ...

It has become axiomatic to regret the tribal division of the United States — the inability to build bridges or even hold conversations across ideological divides, the sharpening national fracture into algorithm-consolidated political silos — and, of course, the Kavanaugh hearings now constitute Exhibit A in this unraveling.

There’s something pathetic about these laments. No call for civility or the capacity for civilized disagreement (the sign of any healthy society) has any weight when, from the highest office in the land, there emanates a stream of partisan vilification. The Oval Office either ennobles Americans or befouls them. There is no escape from the current poison, other than to vote Trump out. ...