Dear reader,
America’s Founding Fathers (yes, it was all men back then, another problem) didn’t agree on many things. But they were very much in agreement on one goal: they did not want to serve a king. You wanted a society of equals, in which the “pursuit of happiness” is a basic democratic right, the individual pursuit of happiness, regardless of whether you happened to be born in an aristocratic room or not. But then something paradoxical happened: the founding fathers created a presidential office with almost royal powers. Sure, presidential power was controlled, even for limited periods. But the president was allowed to make many decisions – probably also because the first incumbent, George Washington, seemed so reliably democratic.
This royal power has been preserved for centuries. American presidents were sometimes smarter, sometimes dumber, they made minor or major mistakes, including crimes. But they had two things in common: they never questioned the democratic transfer of power. And they have never been charged in a criminal court.
Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the USA, has now finally broken with both. The worst thing about it is that hardly anyone notices, he has already destroyed so many things. Some even say the charge of misrepresenting hush money payments to a porn star is paltry compared to other Trump-related crimes. That’s true, but it’s still not an argument. It is about a greater principle that has always been sacred to America: No one is above the law. Trump, who spent his entire adult life balancing on the threshold of jail, of course sees things differently. How can you sue a president as successful as he is, he rages. He calls the prosecuting attorney – who is African American – an “animal” and poses on social media next to a photo of the man threateningly holding a baseball bat. Trump’s acolytes from the Republican Party, fearing his wrath and even more that of his disciples, promptly prompt that such an indictment is “un-American”.
It’s unbelievable, even for me personally. I went to school in America, I studied there, lived, loved, worked for many years. The complexity of the country has always fascinated me – the fact that the most ingenious sides of humanity can be seen there, but at the same time the dullest. But the nightmare called Trump pushes me to the limits of my understanding. When do we wake up from this nightmare? The bitter realization: maybe never. Mark Leibovich, one of the smartest observers of US politics, writes in his new book that Trump’s great strength is his ability to intuitively sniff out weaknesses in people, including in the major US parties. Unfortunately, this weakness will not go away, even if Trump is too weak to make it to the White House again himself.
Many Germans are annoyed by the bickering in the traffic light coalition. But compared to the situation described above, we should be glad to have such problems. The SPD, Greens and FDP sat together in the coalition committee for 30 hours. As a citizen, you ask yourself: Isn’t that a violation of the Working Hours Act? For our survey of the week, we wanted to know from the Germans whether they were in favor of a ban on such eternal meetings (which are more for the show anyway). Almost half are in favor of it, with Green supporters even having a majority. Perhaps this reflects the fact that they are particularly dissatisfied with the outcome of the most recent negotiation and their position in the coalition.
Cordially you,
Gregor Peter Schmitz, Editor-in-Chief
