President Trump wants us to bow to him. He tries to impress us by gilding the White House with gold, paving over the Rose Garden, and taking control of the American military and a Latin American country, accompanied by disclosure that the US Mint is considering “a commemorative coin featuring President Trump,” breaking with tradition, not to put living presidents on money that began with George Washington. And the Administration has renewed calls to take over Greenland, a friendly country, in order to secure the Arctic – a task that could be better completed at much less cost by creating an Arctic defense zone. All this is largely show to impress our eyes. And none of it benefits the people of America.
I want to address current developments from the perspective of the Old Testament – one of our oldest lawbooks. Frankly, I think we pay too little attention to those whose values are rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures. And I think they have something valuable to say. Some friends and I co-authored a text on the Philosophy of Law, which is about the justification for law. One co-author went through the early legal codes, including the Code of Hammurabi - an eye for an eye - and the Bible, noting that a primary task in all of them was to establish why people should obey.
The code might cite the ruler’s descent, selection or support by the gods, or that he established order and justice in the land. The Biblical story of the Golden Calf, in the Book of Exodus, is part of the story describing the rescue of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, designed to make clear why the people should be grateful to God for freeing them from slavery and why they should obey and respect the Lord.
Moses came down from Mout Sinai with the Ten Commandments God gave him, to discover that the people had replaced worship of the Lord with a Golden calf which offered only glitter instead of freedom and justice. For some, my treating the story of the Golden Calf as mere analogy would be blasphemous. Plus, there is no calf, though there is liquid gold aplenty and solid gold on what was sacred and white and control over people in bright military uniforms. Still, did Trump mean to follow an ancient path by establishing his right to rule through display of brightly decorated objects?
The Constitution of the United States adopted a different model, opening with the words: We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Should Trump’s behavior be understood as an attempt to justify his right to rule? If so, should it be met with a democratic version of the First Commandment?The Constitution doesn’t permit visiting the iniquities of the fathers on the children, but isn’t that exactly the threat posed by letting showy glitter establish the authority of our political leaders?
Steve Gottlieb’s latest book is Unfit for Democracy: The Roberts Court and The Breakdown of American Politics. He is the Jay and Ruth Caplan Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Albany Law School, served on the New York Civil Liberties Union board, on the New York Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran. He enjoys the help of his editor, Jeanette Gottlieb
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