OPINION: Our feverish president needs to simmer down

Imagine being a powerful mob boss with a vast criminal organization, unchecked authority and an army of thugs at your disposal. Now imagine being president of the United States. Is there any overlap between those circles in your mental Venn diagram?

Probably not, but there’s someone else who sees those two circles as one, without a sliver of difference. In case you’re wondering, he is both our president and the most powerful mob boss in American history.

By pardoning more than 1,500 rioters and insurrectionists, our president won the loyalty of disaffected, right-wing scofflaws from sea to shining sea. He signaled they have nothing to fear as long as their violence is in service to him. It’s a dog whistle loud enough for deaf dogs to hear.

Kill a cop? No problem. No prison.

The oafs who stormed the Capitol are a clearly identifiable mob, the sort that gathers at night with lanterns and pitchforks. They are easy to spot, but there’s a more insidious mob at work inside the Capitol.

Known as Congressional Republicans, these members of a co-equal branch of government have swallowed their referee’s whistles and are cheering from the sidelines as a wildly chaotic president runs the U.S. Constitution through a shredder.

Though he disparages Democrats as “radicals,” our new president is the one radically transforming America. To wit, he is allowing an unelected billionaire and his Gen Z brownshirts to fire tens of thousands of federal workers.

Whoopee! We’re making government more efficient! To hell with stability!

Does anyone seriously believe the federal government will function better when these career civil servants clean out their desks and leave?

Deeper still, where’s the response from Congressional Republicans? Where’s the response as Elon Musk and his amoral apprentices download Treasury Department information about your bank accounts? Apparently, Musk can stick his nose wherever he wants, which begs the question: Would hyper-aggressive GOP congressmen and senators be so understanding, so nothing-to-see-here if a Democratic president ordered, say, George Soros to do likewise?

In terms of checks and balances, these Congressional Republicans are as relevant as toilet attendants. You know it’s bad when the senator with the stiffest moral backbone turns out to be Mitch McConnell. The ol’ Supreme Court packer himself, standing tall in defense of Constitutional order.

Deep down, most Congressional Republicans know our new president is a danger to society, but they say nothing because they value their political careers more than the nation they purport to love. Their moral compasses have been disabled by a capricious mob boss with an appetite for vengeance.

Our new president spent the entire campaign running away from Project 2025, which is the far-right blueprint for a Christian-themed dictatorship. Now that he’s in office, he is singing lustily from the Project 2025 hymnal. Given his bottomless narcissism, his agenda is transparent: 1) Accept the Nobel Peace Prize; 2) Add another face to Mount Rushmore; and 3) Acquire as much money from other people as possible.

Though he wants to be seen as a grandee, our new president is simply a grifter who has become a useful idiot for the Religious Right.

Don’t believe me? Consider his words from a July 26, 2024, campaign speech to Christian voters: “In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good you’re not gonna have to vote.”

What’s not to like? It would be a third term for him, while simultaneously strengthening the Religious Right’s grip on the levers of power.

That means more restrictions on basic health care for women, more harassment of the LGBT community, and more hatred of immigrants. It also means less consumer protection, less workplace safety, and less scientific research that might contradict God’s whims and wishes. The golden rule for today’s GOP is simple: Don’t meddle with God’s whims and wishes.

It’s exhausting, and some folks say we can’t be too demanding because the election is over and we are out of options. Well, here’s some news: We are not out of options and we cannot stand by as these self-righteous hypocrites take turns molesting Lady Liberty.

The tide undoubtedly will turn in the 2026 midterm elections, when fed-up voters strip Republicans of their majority stranglehold in Congress. That’s a long time to wait so, for the time being, look to attorneys general from blue states to counter the worst instincts of a venal president and his congressional toadies.

This is still a republic, if we can keep it.

Brock has been a Daily News columnist for more than 20 years. He has lived on the Palouse even longer.