The past two centuries have been the era of mass production, of people as well as things. To a degree unimaginable before the Industrial Revolution, all of life has become standardized. Politics is no exception. It has come to be characterized by one set of rules piled atop another, positive law on top of the Constitution, an ever-increasing body of regulations on top of the laws, all couched within quite formal rhetorical and moral norms.

Jack Smith’s plot against the republic

Shane Gillis won’t silence me

Believe women? No – believe evidence

There are rules governing elections, rules governing how parties nominate candidates and playbook rules for conducting a winning campaign. The candidate is really just a product, as is the elected official. They’re products manufactured according to standardized procedures.

But Donald Trump isn’t. This enrages and frightens his critics. There is no norm he won’t violate, no procedure he isn’t prepared to ignore. He has an invincible belief in himself, over any rule. In the days of absolute monarchy, it was said that not even a king could bind a king: in principle, the monarch was not obliged to fulfill promises made by his predecessors, nor did he have to take account of any law he had formerly issued when promulgating a new one. A human being was above the machinery of law.

That had obvious........

© The Spectator