With the RNC looking more like a coronation of a king, I’ve been thinking about the mythology around kingship. Specifically the theme of The Wasteland. (1/26)

This week the Trump family — by which I mean both blood relatives and those who have become vassals to the would-be dynasty — leveraged the powers and privileges of the office of the Presidency to make their patriarch look every bit a king. (2/26)

Set aside the illegality of the move (which most voters probably aren't hip to), and for a moment focus on the fact that what they have him doing on prime time is just his job, for once. Imagine if a line cook made a spectacle out of flipping burgers. (3/26)

Actually, that would be awesome. This is just playing us all for rubes. The fact is, the office of the Presidency can be made to look awesome, because of the awesome and terrible powers we have invested in it. (4/26)

The right wing anxiety over Obama’s “Imperial Presidency” was rooted in racism AND an understanding of just how much power the office wields. (5/26)

Things like the Hatch Act were put into place to keep us from conflating the office with the person of the President, because that way lies monarchy. (6/26)

Which is why the Trump family, whose one true talent is spectacle and whose moral compass always points towards the acquisition of wealth and power, is so quick to toss away the rules — and the law — and wrap itself up in the guise of royalty. (7/26)

But here’s the thing about kings: when you enter into that myth you enter into a story logic that ties the land to the king and the king to the land. And the land: it’s not doing so hot right now. (8/26)

The myth of the Wasteland predates Arthurian legend and it basically goes like this: the land ends up cursed when the king does something wicked/is gravely ill. (9/26)

Sometimes the king goes on a quest to lift the curse by reversing his bad deeds. Sometimes a hero comes along to cure the king and the land. (10/26)

Always though: the fate of the land and the temperament of the king are intertwined. (11/26)

Trump wants to be seen as king. He surely would love to be made king. He talks about getting a do-over for his first term. He “jokes” about his vassals chanting “twelve more years.” (12/26)

But the land is sick. The people are dying. Plague. Fire. Storms. If you or I were a village priest and all that was going down — in the week of this king flexing his power no less — we would say that God is angry with our ruler. (13/26)

Of course, the would-be dynasty tries to deflect this on to the governors and mayors who are their political rivals. But it is too late: they have wrapped themselves in the flag and called it a royal robe. (14/26)

They have set themselves up as the chieftains of the 10% of the nation who own stocks, and the lords of everyone else who toils for those nobles. (15/26)

They own the devastation. The blood spilt last night in Kenosha. The hurricane headed towards the Gulf. The fires devastating California. The flood victims in Iowa. The 180,000 dead — and rising — from a plague. All of it staining the hands of he who would be king. (16/26)

In the myth of democracy, the office of a President turns bloodless the eternal cycle of kingship. (17/26)

No one needs to die in order to redeem the compact between the ruler and the ruled, because all rule through the office and not through the person. It is a role entrusted for a little while, in the grand scheme of things. (18/26)

Woe to the one who would turn back the clock of history. Woe to the one who would restart the cycle that knows only one way: The King is dead. Long live the King. (19/26)

Woe most of all to those who would bend the knee when better ways exist. For they may not rise again to stand on both their feet. (20/26)

This is the story the Trump family wants us to embrace. This is where they want to lead us. Like so much of what they have done, it is clear they do not understand what they are wishing for. (21/26)

I’d pity them, if I thought they knew any mercy in their own hearts. (22/26)

Yet we are not there yet. There is an election yet to come. And there may well be a struggle in the wake of that election to keep this country a democracy. (23/26)

I believe a sick democracy is better than a healthy autocracy, for the former can be saved by its citizens a lot easier than the later. And under this would-be king, America would not be a healthy autocracy. (24/26)

Removing Trump from power won’t save the country. It won’t heal the wounds that divide us. It won’t restore the economy or fix the environment. But no path that leads to those outcomes is possible so long as he remains in power. (25/26)

We cannot move forward with the work until he is gone. (26/26)