Our (I'm from the US, if you didn't read the bio or if I forgot to put it in there. Pretty sure it isn't in there. I like to consider myself a human first, but I'm getting far afield and this parenthetical is already longer than the rest of what I've written, even though I backtracked to clarify WHICH President I meant. I realize I could delete all of this and just open with "The US President," but I think this is both a little funny, and also gives a little insight into how a writer's mind works. At least, this specific writer's.) President declared this morning... actually you know what? Let me start again.
The US President declared this morning that he has the absolute power to pardon himself, but that he would never use that ability because he had done nothing wrong. This assertion should surprise no one. Trump has never been one to accept limits on himself, either as a private citizen or as President.
The whole conversation so far has centered on whether or not the President could pardon himself. The Constitution of the United States of America reads, in relevant part: "he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment." There is case law providing precedent about the ability to pardon. However, and this is the real sticking point, there is nothing about whether or not a sitting President can pardon themselves.
Okay, so I will leave that discussion for the various talking heads that have already taken it up, as it all amounts to a guessing game.
Besides, ramifications are so much more interesting.
Because the real issue, the one we're going to have to live with, is what happens next. So let's look at some possibilities. We'll assume, for the sake of this discussion, that there is something to the Mueller probe, and that Trump at least knew that there was cooperation between his campaign and Russia. The first issue would be one of timing. President Trump seems to need the approval of others the way most people need water. So even if he were to pardon himself, he'd want to hold off on applying the pardon as long as possible because he wouldn't want the base he tweets at to assume that he were guilty.
Actually, let me backtrack real quick for a second. I just want to make clear that I disagree with the notion that a President could pardon himself. Without doing any kind of in-depth look at law or tradition, I can still say with utmost confidence that it is a Bad Idea to have a person, any person, able to say whether or not the laws of the land apply to them.
Anyway, Trump will want to hold off on the self-pardon as long as possible. Unless, of course, he decides to make a play pushing the issue by just sort of pardoning himself via tweet. One of those "I didn't do anything, but I pardon myself so the probe is moot now, go home Dems" sort of things. The result would most likely be the same. It presents decisions to Congress and to the people of the US.
Congress, post-pardon, could still try to impeach Trump, arguing that the self-pardon was itself a "high crime or misdemeanor" against the state. It's difficult to know what is going on in the halls of that august institution, because so many Republican Congresspersons have expressed distaste for Trump and yet blindly followed whenever it came to matters of policy. It's difficult to see how this would be any different.
I think it is far more likely that Trump ends his term and loses any reelection bid, and then Congress amends the Constitution in a landslide to make it impossible for the President to pardon himself.
And this is where I talk about The People. Because we, The People, are dealing with the political issues facing us in much the same way that Republican Congresspeople are. To paraphrase that Nausicaan dom-jot player, we talk and we talk but we have no guramba. But, see, that's okay. That is normal.
People don't like conflict. We are, as a species, notoriously conflict adverse. There are examples from every culture in the world, all across history, from Rome to Nazi Germany, of people just "going with the flow." Because it is very difficult to see the sweep of history when you're just treading toilet-water. The average person, and this goes for you and me and probably everyone we know, just wants to get up, go to work (or not, as the case may be), come home, hug someone they love (or, again, not), maybe play some Playstation or watch some Netflix, maybe go out to a bar, maybe have some sex. And go to sleep.
People want normalcy. People want routine. We even have words enshrining that mode of thinking. Tradition. Culture. Values. People just keep doing the same things they always have, because it's easier than doing it differently.
And you know what? And this might be incendiary to some of you... but that is a good thing. If you look back at what we've done as a species, human civilization looks more like a jalopy than a smoothly-functioning machine. Really, most of the time the wheels are just this close to coming off, and it is only our ability to just kind of... ignore that and keep doing our thing that lets us push through those times. Keep Calm and Carry On. All that rubbish.
At the end of the day, that is what we are doing right now. We fight for things we believe in as long as it is still pretty convenient for us to do so, as long as the cost doesn't outweigh whatever personal benefit we derive from whatever we are doing. It isn't even conscious, we just sort of do things that way. Change happens, sure, but it almost always happens incrementally. People push, but usually not very hard, and things eventually get better.
And those Republican Representatives and Senators? They behave in the exact same way, for the exact same reasons.
Everyone is just sort of holding on, hoping the wheels don't actually come off this time. And, to be fair, history is full of times where shit hit the fan and empires fell. The chaos of war gripped the land. But we remember those times because they were awful and terrible and scarring. Very rarely do remember when shit almost went sideways but everything turned out okay.
And I also want to point out that this is NOT a call to inaction. It is an assumption I'm making based on observation and study. I think it would be amazing to see a critical mass of people rise up and say "no, enough is enough, we're sick of this bullshit" and enact one of those regime changes we Americans are so fond of. I just don't see it happening, because protest and the exertion of the peoples' power is hard work and y'all have bills to pay. I understand.
I guess the point of all of this is that everything will probably turn out okay. That it would require a systemic failure of almost incomprehensible magnitude for the self-pardoning issue to turn into anything truly dangerous to American society or the world as a whole. And that maybe this whole situation is a good opportunity for people to reflect on their beliefs and political leanings, and maybe quietly vote for people that aren't insane next time.
Of course, there's always the chance we get to see one of those wheels-off moments, too. You never know....