A Runaway President

     Anybody who isn't worried to death over what the irrational man in the White House is capable of doing has his/her head in the sand. And that could be fatally dangerous. Even many of Trump’s Republican allies are beginning to break out in a sweat. 
     The nightmare, which cannot be ruled out, is that Trump magnifies this budget impasse - or some other manufactured confrontation - into a national crisis, which he then uses as a pretext to declare martial law and suspend the Constitution ... in the interests of “protecting” the American people.
     Before you pooh-pooh this possibility, think on this. We already know, from his own words, that Trump admires dictators and their absolute power; we already know he has no understanding of how government works and is frustrated by the limitations of Presidential power; we already know that he takes all challenges to his outlandish notions as personal insults; we already know his only response to challenges is to dig in, escalate, and put the blame on everyone else but himself; we already know Donald Trump has no restraint or boundaries. These characteristics are a recipe for disaster. 
     You may be clinging to the fading hope that the Constitution will protect us from a runaway President. But our Constitutional protections only work if our nation's chief law enforcer - the President of the United States - safeguards and enforces our Constitutional rights. If Trump, who, as commander-in-chief has America's armed forces at his disposal, decides to ignore the Constitution and attempt a takeover of total power, the cumbersome machinery of the Legislative and Judicial branches may not be able to act quickly enough to stop him - assuming the will to stop him is there. 
     You may choose to believe that the preceding scenario is the product of an overactive imagination, the stuff of politico-thriller novels. But it has happened before, only 80 years ago, in modern, civilized, and culturally advanced Western countries (Germany and Italy, to be specific). So please do keep this in mind: it is far superior to be overly alarmed and vigilant ... and be wrong ... than it is to be naive and complacent ... and be wrong.