The point where a character defect— extreme narcisssm— edges into even more dangerous territory
Ever since his appearance on the political stage, President Trump has been tarred with the accusation that he is a racist and an authoritarian, if not full-bore fascist.
A friend of mine, who loathes Trump, dispensed, rightly, with the first charge. Trump is colorblind; in his world there are only two categories — for me and against me. Skin color is irrelevant.
As to evidence of the second charge, another liberal friend pointed to Trump’s call for changes in defamation laws in favor of plaintiffs. Trump is apparently blissfully unaware that current American libel law concerning public figures is rooted in the Constitution’s First Amendment, as determined in the Supreme Court’s landmark 1964 ruling in New York Times vs. Sullivan. It cannot be changed by legislation.
Frankly, Trump’s ignorance on that score did not concern me greatly. It never occurred to me that he was much of a student of the American system of checks and balances. And had he ever sought to advance such legislation — which he did not — presumably wiser heads would have informed him it was constitutionally infirm. Nor, incidentally, would a change in libel laws have been, as a philosophical matter, inconsistent with democracy. Britain, a parliamentary democracy, has libel laws far more favorable to public figure plaintiffs than does the United States.
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