You make an important distinction between Law, Norm and Tradition, which I think needs attention beyond the question of candidates' respect for any of the three variations of societal constraints. As we discovered when NATO commitments were called into question, a president can destroy important trust by ignoring any one of the three guardrails of our governance practices. In my opinion, Norms and Traditions are rather loose constraints that should be depended on as little possible if Rule of Law is to be meaningful and trusted. Along a similar vein, two abuses that undermine Rule-of-Law are 'Plea Bargaining' (by which people often admit to infractions they did not commit in order to avoid long and expensive judicial process) and prosecution strategy of 'throwing charges at the wall with the hope that some will stick.' This latter approach is what has enabled The former President to delay the process and confuse the public. Our legal system, and the educators who sustain its flaws along with its virtues, are in sad need of rethinking their discipline. While I am suggesting topics for future examination, let me throw in the dangerous tradition and US law precedents that have established Corporation equivalence to a human, including such decisions as Citizens United and Buckley v. Valeo (the case that establishes that independent spending is constitutionally protected; Citizens United extended that protection to corporations and unions).
So much great stuff here. The one that made me think the most is your point that we need to codify as many norms into actual law as possible to secure our democracy. Maybe we need the Attorney General to be a 10-year term like the FBI Director and subject to removal only for wrongdoing. Perhaps we need more agencies like the Fed that are removed from politics. Perhaps we need a federal agency with a bipartisan board to have power to set voting rules and procedures. Sounds great but then look at how bad the FEC has been. Once you start thinking about how hard it is to codify some principle you realize how important norms are and therefore how norm breakers line Donald Trump are.
You make an important distinction between Law, Norm and Tradition, which I think needs attention beyond the question of candidates' respect for any of the three variations of societal constraints. As we discovered when NATO commitments were called into question, a president can destroy important trust by ignoring any one of the three guardrails of our governance practices. In my opinion, Norms and Traditions are rather loose constraints that should be depended on as little possible if Rule of Law is to be meaningful and trusted. Along a similar vein, two abuses that undermine Rule-of-Law are 'Plea Bargaining' (by which people often admit to infractions they did not commit in order to avoid long and expensive judicial process) and prosecution strategy of 'throwing charges at the wall with the hope that some will stick.' This latter approach is what has enabled The former President to delay the process and confuse the public. Our legal system, and the educators who sustain its flaws along with its virtues, are in sad need of rethinking their discipline. While I am suggesting topics for future examination, let me throw in the dangerous tradition and US law precedents that have established Corporation equivalence to a human, including such decisions as Citizens United and Buckley v. Valeo (the case that establishes that independent spending is constitutionally protected; Citizens United extended that protection to corporations and unions).
So much great stuff here. The one that made me think the most is your point that we need to codify as many norms into actual law as possible to secure our democracy. Maybe we need the Attorney General to be a 10-year term like the FBI Director and subject to removal only for wrongdoing. Perhaps we need more agencies like the Fed that are removed from politics. Perhaps we need a federal agency with a bipartisan board to have power to set voting rules and procedures. Sounds great but then look at how bad the FEC has been. Once you start thinking about how hard it is to codify some principle you realize how important norms are and therefore how norm breakers line Donald Trump are.