What’s the difference between a republic and a monarchy?

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary:

Republic – “A government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law.”

See, that’s what we have, supposedly.

Ok. So what about a monarchy?

Monarchy – “undivided rule or absolute sovereignty by a single person.”

So a republic puts the rule in the hands of the citizens, while a monarchy gives undivided rule to a single person. Got that? Good. Please forward the information to Donald Trump.

Some of us have noted this utter lack of understanding of his limitations displayed by President Trump from early on, and have been attempting to keep the focus on it, lest we lost our nation from the inside. Unfortunately for us all, there are large numbers of voters who would love nothing better than to abandon the freedoms of a Constitutional republic for the glory of King Donald.

Axios recently pointed out Trump’s apparently increasing self-image of himself as American royalty, no doubt spurred on by the adoring Trumpidians, who create social media memes of Trump the god-king and attend all his ego-stroke rallies, in order to worship in person.

According to the Axios piece, it was late June when Trump hosted a group of Native American tribal leaders at the White House.

The tribal leaders apparently were there to discuss the issue of regulations that kept them from using their lands as they see fit.

Trump’s response?

“Just do it.”

Yeah. That’s not the way things are done.

The exchange turned out to be an unusually vivid window into the almost kingly power that Trump sees himself as holding, and which he has begun describing with increasing bluntness. The scene was recounted by a source in the room and confirmed by another. The White House didn’t dispute the story.

The chiefs explained to Trump that there were regulatory barriers preventing them from getting at their energy. Trump replied: “But now it’s me. The government’s different now. Obama’s gone; and we’re doing things differently here.”

Obama is gone. Trump is here. The laws are the same.

The exchange apparently caught the tribal leaders off guard.

“Chief, chief,” Trump continued, addressing one of the tribal leaders, “what are they going to do? Once you get it out of the ground are they going to make you put it back in there? I mean, once it’s out of the ground it can’t go back in there. You’ve just got to do it. I’m telling you, chief, you’ve just got to do it.”

I can only imagine they felt like they were being punked, and that somebody was going to leap out from a potted plant, at any moment, and shove a microphone in their face, as the canned laughter of a studio audience was piped into the room.

The tribal leaders began looking to others in the room for some kind of clarification, to have it hastily explained that the administration was working on rolling back regulations.

Trump interjected again: “Guys, I feel like you’re not hearing me right now. We’ve just got to do it. I feel like we’ve got no choice; other countries are just doing it. China is not asking questions about all of this stuff. They’re just doing it. And guys, we’ve just got to do it.”

• A second source in the room objects vehemently to the suggestion that Trump was asking the chiefs to just start drilling and break federal law. The source said it was unremarkable “Trump speak” and what he meant by “just do it” was he was pushing for removing burdensome regulations from the Obama era.

But that’s not what he said. Not even close.

At least we know the Trump 2020 campaign slogan: “Trump 2020 – What he meant to say was…”

The Axios article goes on to point out that this incident was not an anomaly. Trump really does believe he’s above the limitations of our government, as it has been crafted.

• This past week he claimed sole credit for soaring stock prices.
• This past week he publicly moaned about limits on his ability to direct the FBI /Justice Department — and then went on to bully the department for not investigating “Crooked Hillary & the Dems.”
• This past week he told Fox’s Laura Ingraham “I’m the only one that matters” when it comes to State Department policy and personnel.

We don’t have a monarchy, nor should we take it lightly or ignore it when someone in the highest seat of power in our nation attempts to act as if we do.

The article goes on to point out that we should expect to see more clashes with Congress, as Trump tries to bend the system to his will, rather than to attempt to learn the job he was elected to do.

I would suggest that he’ll follow the path of least resistance, and if that means siding with Democrats to get anything done, that’s what he’ll do. He has no ideological foundation that would prevent that. All the Democrats have to do to get their way is compliment his tie. If they were smart, they’d stop fighting him or talking about impeaching him at every turn. Just send a fruit basket to the Oval Office every now and again and give polite applause when he walks the halls. They’d get everything they wanted.

It’s not like there are many Republicans in Washington willing to put up a fight against a president with an “R” beside his name, anyway.

And Trump’s loyal public are as shifty with their standards as he is. If he says it’s a good thing, they just bobblehead along.

The article also suggests that as he grows more frustrated, he’ll use more executive orders and create more chaos with the system, in order to get his way.

I have no problem believing that it could shake out exactly that way.

Thus says the king.