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Trump’s America is Un-American
When the law can’t handle the perfect monster
The likely fiasco of President Trump’s impeachment reminds us that we would understand little of how societies actually function if we were to examine only their laws. This is familiar from the distorted impression of ancient societies that’s liable to be left by a record only of their aspirational laws, but the same point applies to how our present cultures might seem to historians from the distant future.
The law shows how the social systems should work. Citizens and officials strive to follow the law, but eventually the society may shift in certain ways that make various laws obsolete. A society may even become so degraded that it loses respect for the spirit of law as such or else laws may be written by factions and reflect only their special interests rather than the character of the society as a whole.
Take, for example, what the US Constitution says about impeachment:
The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment…The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted…
