I wanted to start this essay with a reference to my regular reader, but as it happens, he and his wife are overseas as I type these words. Their trip’s purpose is to scout possible retirement locations outside the United States, should the current imperial Trumpism continue beyond the coming election cycles. I personally am more optimistic, as we are seeing Trump’s polling numbers crashing and his economic “policies” being increasingly dismissed by even formerly hardcore Trumpers.

So instead, I’ll start by saying my other regular reader, my lovely and intelligent wife, will recall I taught the Constitution for many years at the United States Air Force Academy. One of the principles we taught the freshfolk (called “Four Degrees” at the Academy, with seniors being called “Firsties”) as part of their required class on American government and national defense, was federalism.

Most folks are pretty up to speed on what one might call the “vertical” layers of government, with governance divided into executive, legislative and judicial branches. And these divisions are quite important. But what gets less attention, and therefore is important to teach to the cadets, is what one might call the “horizontal” division of government, into national, state and local layers and the critical concept of federalism.

Though lots of countries have similar structures of government, a federalist model like ours is less common, and contains a vital provision: each level of government has policy areas in which that level, and that level alone, can make final decisions on certain issues.

Thus, we have things like education largely being run at the state level, and things like zoning rules created at the local level, while only the federal government deals with, say, international treaties.

Contrast that with the “unitary” style of government found in countries like France. Though they retain the national, state, and local structure, in a unitary system the national level can make rules in any area the two lower levels must accept. Similarly, the state level can make rules that apply to the local governments. The old joke (well, not exactly a joke) is the French minister of education can look at his watch and know what page of what book every fourth-grader in the country is reading.

Federalism in the U.S. is a concept that clearly our current wannabe king (heck, he posts on social media wearing a crown, for Pete’s sake) doesn’t understand. He wants to rule the entire country entirely. For example, as reported recently in Colorado Politics, he thinks he can issue an executive order that overrules a law passed by our state government dealing with artificial intelligence regulation.

But a rather more blatant and repulsive demonstration that suggests this president must think he is in France was his issuing of a “pardon” for former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, for her many crimes against fair and free elections. She was charged and tried and convicted in state court, and resides in a state prison, where she will remain. President Donald Trump simply doesn’t have the power, due to federalism, to pardon any state or local offender, anymore than Gov. Jared Polis could free a federally convicted individual. But regardless, Trump issued the “pardon” which I imagine will become a rallying point for his increasingly fewer MAGA hardliners.

You didn’t see quite this much of this extra-legal nonsense in Trump’s first term, but recall please during that term, or at least for parts of it, he had in the cabinet and on his staff, some reasonable people who took their jobs with Trump in the hopes of being guardrails on his eccentricities and, frankly, stupidity. People like General John F. Kelly, General James N. Mattis, John Bolton, and others, with whom I disagree on many issues, but who are good and decent men unwilling to allow Trump’s nonsense to be uncontested.

In his second term, those people are gone; replaced by sycophants willing to bend the knee in response to any and all actions by our wannabe monarch. Couple that with an obsequious Republican majority in the House, Senate and Supreme Court and you have a recipe for unchecked irrationality. For those of you that are OK with this, I ask you to honestly consider if you will be equally content with such abuses of precedent by, say, Gavin Newsom in 2028? 

Frankly, I’m not sure whether Trump actually believes he has unchecked power, as certified by the Supreme Court, or if he is just giving it a shot, and if it works, great. But again, if you are perfectly content with a Trump administration wielding such unimagined powers, remember you must be equally content with a liberal Dem in office, lest you be considered a hypocrite.

As noted, polling is showing a growing discontent with, well, I was going to say the Trump approach, but I’m not sure there is any thoughtful approach other than kneejerk when issues arise. Nonetheless, Trump and his ilk are finding more and more people upset.

And another recent CoPo story, appearing in my favorite Out West Roundup section, notes the town of Lexington, Nebraska, part of the deep-red region where Trump has, or at least had, huge support, just suffered a catastrophic economic disaster, when Tyson Foods decided to close the beef processing plant in Lexington. To give you a sense of scale, in a city of 11,000 people, 3,200 just lost their jobs. That’s just shy of 30% of the citizens getting fired all at once, and you know that ripples well beyond those 3,200. I can’t imagine too many cafes or dry cleaners, or car washes are going to be able to stay open when the full economic impact is felt.

It’s OK though, because Trump’s billionaire buddies got big tax breaks. I’m sure that makes those newly unemployed people feel a lot better, right?

When you combine a quite limited intellect with an enormous ego and sense of divinity, you end up with a Trump. He thinks he can issue any order, and he doesn’t really give a darn about regular folks. I can take at least some satisfaction knowing I never voted for him. The good people of Lexington, Nebraska may well feel different.

And that’s a shame.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.