Why the Newest Defense of Trump is the Most Dangerous

Alan Dershowitz raises the specter of a new dark age of monarchy

In perhaps the most desperate attempt yet to protect the president from being held accountable to the public’s trust, Trump’s lawyers have launched a dangerous theory of defense from which there may be no return.

The claim, made by constitutional scholar Alan Dershowitz, effectively puts the final nail in the coffin of what was once a recognizable reality — a reality defined and oriented by a reference to facts and reasonable objectivity.

Dershowitz’s argument landed the coup de gras yesterday when he stated,

“Every public official I know believes that his election is in the public interest…if the president does something which he believes will help him get elected, in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.”

By that rationale, this president — and any president by extension — should be considered the sole source of all that is knowable about the public interest.

The revelation is a chilling outright denial of material reality in its suggestion that, when it comes to impeachment, the outside world does not exist, and that the subjective experience of president precludes…