In a surprising column posted at the conservative National Review, Donald Trump was dragged over the coals for refusing to take part in the time-honored tradition of the peaceful transfer of power after an election loss and for forcing the Supreme Court to intervene.
With Trump currently embroiled in a criminal trial in Manhattan tied to buying silence from an adult film star before the 2016 presidential election, court watchers are awaiting a ruling from the nation's highest court on the limits of presidential immunity.
According to the National Review's Christian Schneider, it should never have come to this and the the former president — and political outsider — has willfully failed to understand the "unwritten rules."
Want more breaking political news? Click for the latest headlines at Raw Story.
ALSO READ: Trump’s Manhattan trial could determine whether rule of law survives: criminologist
Along those lines, the columnist accused Trump of being a "sore loser," and fretted that the Supreme Court will plunge future presidents into a morass of what is legal and what is illegal after assuming office.
Referring to the "social contract" civilized society requires for existence, he wrote, "This 'social contract' involves all the things we do, not because a law or rule directs us, but because these behaviors are necessary for society to function. Call them 'courtesy' or 'norms' or 'etiquette' or 'customs' or 'mores' — they are the unwritten rules that lubricate the political and social machine, allowing people of different opinions, backgrounds, and incentives to coexist."
As Schneider views it, a "dishonorable" Trump has broken the contract and set the stage for future chaos.
"That dishonor has now landed former president Donald Trump at the center of a case before the U.S. Supreme Court: The justices must figure out when a president can be held criminally liable for actions that took place during his presidency," he wrote before adding, "Because of Trump’s unwillingness to accept (or lack of knowledge of) the traditional concept of the peaceful transfer of power, the justices must now write down the unwritten rules."
After fingering Trump as the culprit, he explained, "So now all the unwritten things we have normally chalked up to tradition — the peaceful transfer of power, the idea that a vice president can’t decline to count state electors, respect for law enforcement and the court system, etc. — are no longer taken for granted. Because of one sore loser, they now have to be spelled out by an unelected court rather than by the lawmaking branch. And given the Supreme Court’s inability to see into the future, that is going to be almost impossible to do."
"When etiquette wanes and the holes in our interactions are exposed, they are filled with more illiberal laws meant to teach us how we should behave," he elaborated before accusing, "But it is now Trump who is forcing us to litigate the commonplace, and this litigation of civic etiquette is far more dire and less entertaining than a Larry David rant. If only Emily Post had written a manual on the peaceful transition of power."
You can read more here.
