I have the ultimate authority.

President Donald Trump, April 13, 2020

Mt. Trump was built with a shovel. It started with “rapists and thieves,” which was quickly followed by “I like people who weren’t captured.” The dirt pile became a hill and grew into an overwhelming peak. “I got a beautiful letter.” “Mexico is gonna pay for it.” “We have it totally under control.” Mt. Trump is so vast that it is impossible to avoid, comprehend, or assault. What do you do with a mountain? It’s just there.

Still, some comments require a response. Principles transcend, by definition, time and place. They may grow out of fashion, even in quarters that once pretended to cherish them, but they must persist, especially in politics.

“I have the ultimate authority” is a claim of sovereignty that should rankle every citizen who hears it.

The U.S. Constitution did not enthrone a monarch. The American President is a republican creation, a political, legal, and social equal to every regular Joe and Jane. Our executives are endowed with dramatic powers to guarantee a rapid, efficient response to crises, but even those powers are curtailed. Congress can countermand. The Judiciary can strike down. States have their own reserved powers to protect public health, safety, and welfare.

But even these are not “ultimate” authorities. In our form of government, the Constitution itself is the supreme law of the land. It stands above those who inhabit the offices it defines. This frail piece of parchment takes the measure of these mighty figures and weighs their actions. This is the rule of law, where external standards restrain those who wield power on our behalf.

Adherence to the law, including the Constitution, is a cardinal doctrine of the American gospel. As Abraham Lincoln said, in his famous Lyceum Address,

Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap–let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;–let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation…

President Trump’s statement, regardless of the context, should be seen as the apostasy it is. To call it such may seem ill-fitting in an age that lionizes our celebrity leaders. Our politicians are social media titans that hurl digital thunderbolts. They make us feel empowered as they define our tribes and our realities. In a twisted way, too many of us view ourselves as extensions of the politicians we venerate.

This is, of course, fully backwards. While our Constitution is indeed supreme, it is lifeless apart from us. Sovereignty, in a republic, flows from the people. “We, the People” is the deliberately majestic phrase our founders chose to define the order of things. If the American experiment is to be more than a noteworthy bump on the political trail that winds from Athens to the future, we have to do better. We must jealously protect our own sovereignty at all turns and against all usurpers, even during a pandemic.