You know, President Pence is sounding better

America needs a leader, writes Michael Gerson from Washington.

Every time U.S. Vice-president Mike Pence appears for a coronavirus briefing, it is a reminder what the votes of just 20 Republican senators for impeachment might have accomplished for the republic.

Pence is no Franklin D. Roosevelt, but neither is he an obviously outmatched leader like his boss. The vice-president is a sycophant but not an incompetent. He possesses the type of qualities one might find in an effective governor facing a hurricane. President Donald Trump possesses the qualities one might expect in a shady businessman trying to shift responsibility for bad debt and mismanagement — which was the main leadership qualification on his pre-presidential resume.

Never has the phrase “President Pence” had a better ring to it. Never have Republican votes against impeachment seemed more short-sighted and damaging to the country.

I’ll not deny that a presidential election is always something of a crapshoot. Before his own election as president, even FDR was no FDR. Walter Lippmann thought that the New York governor’s record showed “that he just doesn’t have a very good mind, that he never really comes to grips with a problem which has any large dimensions, and that above all the controlling element in almost every case is political advantage.”

Lippmann badly underestimated FDR. But we now have plenty of evidence to judge our current president. Trump just doesn’t have a very good mind — or at least one capable of absorbing and repeating essential facts. He can’t come to grips with a problem that has large dimensions — as displayed by his habitual lateness and indecision. And his controlling element is political — particularly in his contemptible attempt to shift political blame.

The point here is not simply to condemn Trump, which has limited usefulness in the midst of a national crisis. At this point it is perhaps better to ignore him, which is precisely what governors and mayors across the country are doing to good effect. But Americans do need to recall this moment the next time they enter a voting booth. In nominating and electing

Trump, Republicans were making the claim that presidential character matters for nothing. That only his policy views and judicial appointments really count in the end.

Two months ago, every Republican senator except Mitt Romney (Utah) publicly reaffirmed this argument. By voting against impeachment for Trump’s abuse of power, they were also denying that presidential temperament and judgment should be given serious weight in our public life. They were saying, in effect, that a trivial leader was sufficient for a trivial time. Who cares about integrity, wisdom and public spirit when the stock market is rising and the economy is booming?

They should have cared. We all should have cared.

It was impossible to elect Trump without mentally shrinking the presidency to fit him. A president, we were told, didn’t really need to have governing experience. He didn’t need to care about the truth. He didn’t need to be civil or unifying. He didn’t need to be a diplomat. He didn’t need to be a pastor.

But suddenly, governing skill is the antidote to panic. Trust in the truthfulness of public officials is essential to public health. Unified action is central to the safety of the vulnerable. Global co-operation is necessary for any national strategy to work. And leadership will increasingly require the ability to express empathy and to comfort those dealing with inexplicable loss.

It has recently been common in our politics to assert that the establishment has failed, that our institutions and systems are corrupt, and that we need political disrupters to shake things up or burn things down. This is now revealed as the political philosophy of spoiled children. We no longer have the luxury of apocalyptic petulance or the language of faux revolution. We need trusted experts to carry hard truths. We need our systems and institutions to bear enormous weight. We need public officials to encourage an orderly urgency, to repair what is broken and to calm irrational fears.

Perhaps all these lessons will be quickly forgotten once the emergency is lifted. But it would be better if this period were known as the “Great Sobering,” when our country relearned the high stakes of politics, the indispensability of public character and the importance of a functioning president.

(c) 2020, Washington Post Writers Group