“Hail to the Chief” is the worst song in the United States’ patriotic oeuvre. “America the Beautiful” tells us of “amber waves of grain” and “purple mountain majesties,” and “The Star-Spangled Banner” evokes our pride in the broad stripes and bright stars of that red, white and blue beacon of freedom. But “Hail to the Chief” implores us to pledge cooperation with and salute one person. The tune suggests blind acceptance and adoration of a man, not an ideal.
There was an inauguration on Jan. 20, but this peaceful transfer of power — the cornerstone of our republican roots and of George Washington’s legacy — has never looked more like a coronation. There are few lines of argument today more frustrating and fallacious than those that conclude with some variation of “He’s the President now,” “He’s everybody’s president,” “We must show him respect and accept his mandate” or “Get behind him for unity’s sake.” But let adherents to America’s founding principles and their opponents both take note: Americans owe nothing to the president — the president of the United States owes everything to them.
The cult of personal loyalty characteristic of our new president and his adherents is a relic of monarchy and autocracy. Kings had royal courts, but presidents must not. The public ought not be ruled by force of personality. Americans deserve better than that. The public ought not be reprimanded for public demonstration. Americans deserve better than that. And the people of the finest nation to have ever been created in the spirit of liberty ought not settle for their current lot. They deserve far, far better than that.
The capacity for free demonstration, agitation and resistance is the very thing that has made this country great and will continue to do so. Federal employees may serve at the pleasure of the president, but the president serves at the pleasure of the people. And it is not incumbent upon those who are now displeased to change; instead, it is incumbent upon the president to earn their trust. A man becomes worthy of respect when his actions compel it, and a president becomes deserving of admiration when he demonstrates a dedication to the principles of American democracy and to each American. The president is subject to the restrictions set out in the Constitution and enshrined in U.S. law. He is not above the law, nor is he the arbiter of the law. He is a citizen whose fate rests only in the hands of the citizens whose welfare he is lawfully bound to promote.
Imagine half of your neighborhood got to choose your new mailman, despite your wishes to the contrary. You would not sit silent if he left your letters in the mud at the foot of your driveway each day, nor would you be expected to. If he failed to deliver your mail, you would agitate for a change. You could not be faulted for working to ensure his adequacy as a mailman until your mail reached your mailbox without fail.
Our new president’s explicit promises, and the implicit undertones that pervaded and accompanied his campaign and transition to the presidency, threaten to leave millions of Americans’ letters in the mud. His mindset and ignorance threaten to undo the progress made by groups lacking the rights and freedoms that too few people in this country enjoy. His aim, and that of the racists and billionaire oligarchs with whom he surrounds himself, is nothing less than complacency and the acceptance of regression.
The respect accorded to the office of the president is utterly distinct from any accorded to the person who occupies it. If that person acts in a manner contrary to the founding ideals of the republic and threatens to undermine them; fails to account for the rights he is bound to protect and responsibilities to which he himself is bound; or exhibits the traits of a monarch and lays the groundwork to become one, he is undeserving of that respect. Resisting Trump’s agenda is therefore neither unpatriotic nor treasonous nor wrong. It is the greatest possible display of respect for the presidency of the United States — and for the country that office exists to serve.
So do not pledge cooperation and do not hail to the chief. Follow instead the path of liberty, the way of equality and the pursuit of justice. Follow instead the lines of “God Bless America,” and “swear allegiance to a land that’s free.” We are not required to hail to the chief. He is required to hail to us.
