Krugman: The Worst and the Dumbest
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/08/opinion/trump-stable-genius.html
The Worst and the Dumbest
Paul Krugman | JAN. 8, 2018
Like millions of people around the world, I was reassured to learn that Donald Trump is a Very Stable Genius. You see, if he werent if he were instead an erratic, vindictive, uninformed, lazy, would-be tyrant we might be in real trouble.
Lets be honest: This great nation has often been led by mediocre men, some of whom had unpleasant personalities. But they generally havent done too much damage, for two reasons.
First, second-rate presidents have often been surrounded by first-rate public servants. Look, for example, at a list of Treasury secretaries since the nations founding; while not everyone who held the office was another Alexander Hamilton, over all its a pretty impressive contingent and it mattered. ...
Second, our system of checks and balances has restrained presidents who might otherwise have been tempted to ignore the rule of law or abuse their position. While weve probably had chief executives who longed to jail their critics or enrich themselves while in office, none of them dared act on those desires.