Joe HonickJoe Honick
Most American school kids learn early that there are three branches of government: the Executive, Legislative and Judicial. They exist to serve what students of government call the “balance of powers,” hopefully to avoid dictatorships or worse. In a democracy, even the best of intentions may not result in an ideal implementation of the rules, a reason why each of the branches can help exercise restraint and sometime veto on the others.

Donald Trump, noting the division between the Republican-majority Congress and the President of the United States, has introduced himself as a virtual emperor who will single-handedly change the course of American history, hardly acknowledging the existence of the two other branches that not only must co-exist with the President but guard the rights of American citizens.

He can be excused for acting like any politician on the make who tries to erase his own past or even flip flops in order to gain votes. So it’s up to an electorate to measure the quality of a candidate by what he or she shares … or hides …. and how he or she characterizes his or her power if put in office.

What is also of overwhelming importance is how nations around the world view our leaders and determine how they will relate to us. When I wrote some years ago in these pages about the dangers of irrelevance, I tried to point out that other countries and their leaders no longer see us as all powerful but more as a source for money and arms. Unfortunately, that has also implied suckering us into foreign involvements for doubtful results and often great dangers. Sadly, and dangerously, our reputation has changed dramatically for the negative since.

As a result of these realities, if our President presents him/herself as an emperor rather than the leader of a democracy, we risk the fact that other nations may join with our competitors, commercially and militarily.

Not only has Trump demonstrated a lack of understanding in international relations generally, but he has insulted virtually any foreign leader who might get in his way. We don’t like it when we see it elsewhere — think of North Korea — and others wouldn’t like it if we were led that way.

That even his own party understands this concern has been made abundantly clear by the extremely open hostility from the Republican establishment. These party leaders seem afraid to delve into his international conflicts of interest, former relationships with those he now opposes like the Clintons and, even more, puzzled as to how to deal with his virtually non-stop character attacks in all directions, having nothing to do with White House performance. Result: day by day buckling

But there is a significant segment, unhappy with Washington, that has glommed onto his rhetoric as many did with the late Joe McCarthy.

It’s critical, then, that a candidate who is wittingly or otherwise presenting himself as what can only be termed an “emperor” and total ruler be brought to heel with the clear understanding that the President is but one third of the American balance of powers. And, if the party for which he is now touted as the Presumptive Nominee fails to require that understanding by and of him, a world struggling to avoid conflict will teach him that lesson at the expense of the American people and millions more if he is elected.

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Joe Honick is President of GMA International.