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niceatheist
Guest
If we take the position that the author of the op-ed piece did, that remaining in the Administration is the only way to prevent the President from causing further damage, then it really isn’t a matter of courage or cowardice, but rather a pretty blatantly-made utilitarian argument; “If I reveal myself to the world, I will be removed from my position and I will no longer be able to safeguard the country.”
That, of course, requires one to accept the author’s fundamental claim about what they’ve done and why they’ve done it. If one rejects the stated motive, then one can certainly read in all manner of cowardice and sabotage.
Ultimately I view it this way. What this person is doing, if indeed this person (and by extension other members of the Administration) are indeed thwarting the duly-elected constitutionally-mandated President, then they are at the very least extraordinarily disloyal, and more than likely crossing a line that seems awfully close to a coup d’etat. That they can declare that their actions as the only means to prevent catastrophe doesn’t really sufficiently justify what they are doing.
Worse, in my view, is that the op-ed piece does at least betray one motivation; that while they have to manage, deceive and thwart the President, that they also support some of things that he has done. Rather than following the constitutional remedies available to seek the removal of an unfit President, they still feel value in some of his actions, and pride in their part in the good the Administration has done. In other words, they, if you accept their argument at face value, are willing to put the nation in extreme jeopardy simply because sometimes the President does the right thing.
If a number of members of the Administration, and in particular the Cabinet itself, feel that the President through lack of fitness or through some utterly wayward or missing moral capacity, cannot fulfill the obligations and responsibilities of the Presidency, then they can’t act like thieves and conspirators; stealing pieces of paper and ignoring his orders. They need to either invoke the 25th Amendment and, yes, gird themselves for the constitutional and political firestorm that will inevitably follow, or alternatively go to Congress and tell the body that has the constitutional and moral authority to remove a President that President Trump is unfit for office, and leave it Congress’s hands to either impeach and remove the President, or find some other means to constrain him.
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