Is Mr. Trump a legitimacy crisis?
Steve Reyna
There has recently been widespread debate in the media fueled by Congressman John Lewis’ claim that he does not believe Mr. Trump to be a ‘legitimate’ president. Congress Lewis, a champion of civil rights struggles, is a something of a moral icon. His judgment has outraged Trump’ myrmidons who rebut him by asserting that, even though Trump lost the popular ballot by a wide margin, he won the vote in the Electoral College and in the American democracy if you win in the Electoral College you have won the presidency. Therefore –suck it up- the Donald is legit. One way of advancing this debate is to decide what it means to be legitimate and, then, exploring if Trump satisfies the conditions of legitimacy.
Broadly speaking peoples’ actions are legitimate if they are in conformity with prevailing laws or rules. Legitimacy can be found in two sorts of actions –one official, the other moral. ‘Official legitimacy’ involves conformity to an organization’s rules. If a US political official takes bribes, she or he is not in conformity to governmental laws, and is illegitimate. ‘Moral legitimacy’ turns on conformity to moral rules. A person who steals breaks one of the Ten Commandment; is a moral reprobate; and is illegitimate. So, is Congressman Lewis’ claim concerning the Donald legitimate?
Consider, first, the case regarding official legitimacy. US electoral rules forbid meddling with the voting process. However, three sorts of tampering occurred in the 2017 election. First, the Russians conducted a campaign to reduce Hillary Clinton’s vote. External meddling in an electoral contest by a foreign power is not legitimate. Second, Republicans have conducted voter suppression activities for decades throughout the country. Suppressing their opponent’s votes is not legitimate. Third, Director of the FBI, James Comey, interfered with Secretary of State Clinton’s campaign by announcing publically that she was under criminal investigation due to her use of a private server for government business. The Director refused to comment on any FBI investigations against Trump, saying that would be against his agency’s rules. Comey clearly interfered in the electoral campaign against Clinton and for Trump. Russian meddling, Republican voter suppression, Director Comey’s intervention may, or may not, have won the election for Mr Trump. Whether they did, or did not, they were illegitimate.
Consider, further, the case regarding moral legitimacy. During the electoral campaign a tape of Trump was released in which he bragged of grabbing women ‘by the pussy’. Seizing a women, thrusting a hand between her legs, and squeezing her genitals is reprehensible. When the recording was released, Trump said it was just ‘locker room banter’. Twelve women claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Trump as of the middle of October 2016. Contemplate, additionally, Trump has been something of a bully. His vulgar hectoring of Fox television’s Megyn Kelly stands out. After she interviewed him in a manner he did not like, he claimed that ‘blood was coming out of her whatever’. Equally disturbing was his crude physical mocking of the gestures of a journalist with physical joint disability. He is a compulsive liar. PolitiFact awarded him its ‘Lie of the Year Award’ in 2015. The claim that climate change was a ‘Chinese hoax’ was certainly a whopper. It goes without saying that Mr. Trump is religiously intolerant person, who has it in for Muslims; who lends support to openly fascist, racist, and anti-Gay individuals and organizations.
Consequently, the 2016 presidential contest was illegitimately manipulated by Russia, the Republicans, and the FBI. Trump flouts moral rules as a self-admitted sexual abuser -a religiously, racially intolerant bully- given to lying. The 2017 election and its winner are illegitimate. on official and moral grounds. There is a rip-roaring legitimacy crisis in the US. At his swearing in ceremony, the Donald should be denied the presidency; returned to Trump Tower; there to twitter away his remaining days.