In public life, as in much else, there’s a difference between form and substance. When looking into this I discovered the distinction goes back as far as Aristotle’s physics, but also pops up everywhere from law to accounting where it isn’t enough to follow the proper form if it is used to disguise errors or omissions in substance.
This came to mind when considering recent examples of Donald Trump’s behavior. In addressing the NFL’s requirement that players stand for the national anthem and dissenters remain out of sight and therefore out of mind, Trump suggested those refusing to conform should leave the county. Presumably because the expression of views he doesn’t want to hear is unAmerican.
This confusing of form with substance is common. Saluting the flag is an outward formal display of patriotism, but is hollow if just for show. The substance of patriotism is understanding and embracing the founding principles that govern our country, one of which is to be free from thought control or coercion.
Similarly we are all familiar with vigorously genuflecting churchgoers or religious leaders who observe the form of their faith but who do not actually practice the substance. Jesus could be rather harsh when it came to these whited sepulchers.
Politicians are famous for, and often scorned because of, their saying one thing and doing another, for mouthing the words of the democracy while trying to enact a program that undermines that form of government. Some politicians are certainly weasels, but others are simply operating in the sausage factory where delivering a deliciously democratic product may entail some pretty gruesome steps.
The amazing thing about Trump that appalls his detractors and delights his acolytes is that in both the substance and the form of his behavior he pays no attention to the ordinary norms of manners, morality, and legality.
From the moment he began his campaign by promising to protect good Americans from Mexican rapists and murderers crossing the border, each day has brought a new transgression of established norms. For Memorial Day, he turned the most solemn of national observances, commemorating blood spilled in defense of liberty, topsy turvy.
He chose to tweet a list of his supposed accomplishments in office and to suggest they made the sacrifice of generations of patriots all worthwhile. Instead of thanking the fallen dead for the last full measure of devotion, he implied they owed him a round of applause.
Often his aides try to get Trump to observe the established forms, but he can’t be bothered. So, he recently read a boilerplate speech urging Republicans to turn out for the 2018 midterms because they are just as important as the 2016 presidential election. But he stopped in mid-pitch to say, obviously this wasn’t true, his election was a much bigger deal, and to ask who wrote this crap he was given to say.
When it comes to the actual nuts and bolts of governing, he is equally uninterested in substance. He riffs on those themes that got him elected and says he is accomplishing his goals even when they are unachievable.
And he has a complete disinterest in the complexity of drafting legislation or conducting foreign policy. If it can’t be reduced to pictures or a soundbite, forget it. So, he recently promised yet again that Mexican would pay for the border wall that he claims is being built, even though they won’t and no actual wall-building has taken place.
His fans love him for talking tough and claiming he will bring back jobs, build infrastructure, fix healthcare and cut taxes, but the substance is often the opposite. He says nobody is tougher on Russia, but he profited from Russian efforts to throw the election his way, and has done nothing to punish Russia for it or to prevent more of the same in 2018. The tax cut that was supposed to help the working man not the fat cats went 80% to the latter. The healthcare fix is nowhere to be seen, and millions of people have lost protection since his election.
He guaranteed he’d separate himself from his business interests to avoid conflicts, yet his presidency has been a festival of profiteering, nepotism, self-dealing and emoluments. His vow to stop China from stealing jobs has turned into the lifting of sanctions on a Chinese company that is not just an intellectual property thief, but a security threat. This just so happened to coincide with the granting of lucrative trademarks to his daughter Ivanka and a $500 million Chinese investment in Indonesian development that will benefit Trump properties.
There have been plenty of people in American government before who have been closet racists, nativists, profiteers, but they have kept it out of sight and been punished when exposed by their own party or by voters at the ballot box.
In Trump’s case, the corruption is out in the open and celebrated. Shamelessness is in vogue. His followers and his own party see, hear, and speak no evil, motivated out of either fear of the next mean tweet from the head of their party or a decision to put power and party ahead of country.
At his inaugural, President Kennedy made stirring use of that formal occasion to express a classic, if worryingly grandiose, formulation of an American credo. He promised, “we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”
In the age of Trump, this would have to be revised to read, “we will tell any lie, slander any person, undermine any institution, break any promise, corrupt any ideal in order to assure the survival and the success of me.”