Fall…is just the worst time of year for me. Not only is the world losing the warmth and green and sun of summer, but September is the anniversary of my two longest relationships ending. Just looking out the window at grey skies, seeing the dead leaves swirl in the chilly wind, makes me feel all the sadness in the world.
September is also the anniversary of the passing of a
college classmate, killed while training for the Chicago Marathon in 2003. Even the excitement and happiness of fall
marathon season is twinged with sadness of what could have been for him, and I
find myself thinking about Scott a lot during the “taper tantrum,” the last few
weeks of training where you rest your body before Marathon Sunday.
Cue in…escapism via Hollywood. Without the usual distractions of marathons
this year, I found myself coping by catching up on the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. As self-care, it was perfect mind-numbing
fun, and hey, I might as well get the most out of my free trial of Disney+
before it ends, right?
The one thing I noticed throughout the movies is that,
outside of the plot to assassinate the President in Iron Man 3, the President of
the United States is a non-entity, to the point that only Iron Man 3 is the
only time an actor portrays the President.
Congressmen, United Nations, Cabinet members, military officials, but no
President. The Winter Soldier is a
political thriller where the President is completely irrelevant, relegated to a
name on the wall in a Smithsonian exhibit.
Shouldn’t Tony Stark have the President on speed dial?
Obviously, it’s Hollywood, and especially when you have something
like 25 Avengers and who knows how many side characters in the last two films,
there’s just not time—or plot—to include any sort of normal governmental response
to events. However, watching these films
on the eve of a Presidential election, the lack of a President in 22 of the 23
MCU films stands out—and has me reflecting on the role of the President as
defined in the Constitution.
The whole point of the President was for him (or her) not to
become a dictator or a monarch. He or
she only carries one third of the power, sharing with the Supreme Court and Congress.
You can even argue, with their power to
create laws and distribute funds, that Congress, a body of normal citizens
elected by normal citizens, has slightly more power than the other two branches. Rather than being led by one person, we are
led by 545. (President + Supreme Court +
Congress)
In addition, the President is given a Cabinet of department
Secretaries, who help manage the Executive Branch. While the President appoints those Secretaries,
these appointments are confirmed by the Senate.
While the President, often through the Secretary of State, negotiates
treaties, they are not valid until the Senate approves them. It’s no surprise that the Avengers, when it
comes to the Sokovia Accords, have to deal with a Secretary of State confirmed
by the Senate, rather than the President directly.
The tweets and posts and grams and snaps (as in chat, not
Gauntlet) about our Presidential election tell a very different story. There seems to be this mythos within the
American people that the US President is the most powerful person in the world,
a modern-day Queen Victoria, who can do anything they want with a sign of the
pen. My social media feeds oscillate
between posts describing how a candidate can fix every problem in our country to
how a candidate will rule by fiat if elected.
The importance and weight we have put on electing a President
is not unusual. Since President Trump
was elected, however, the amount of energy that has been given to every single Tweet
or speech or action has been elevated. The
fear that the President can do whatever he wants, the anger and rage when the
President does something undesirable, and the anger and rage of the people who
are tired of the former’s anger and rage—it’s a constant stream of energy and
attention. However, nobody considers how
all that energy is feeding the beast, inadvertently growing the power of
someone who shouldn’t have all that much.
Perhaps I’ve just invented the next Marvel villain, a politician who
feeds off of social media drama to the point of developing superpowers…
Seriously, people. The
Democratic Party has control of the US House, leaving the US Senate stuck between
the President and the House. (You want
to know why Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is so wishy-washy? He’s literally stuck between a rock and a
hard place.) The Supreme Court, even
Trump’s own nominees, have shown independence in their decisions, continuing
the history of taking each case as it is and comparing to the Constitution,
rather than blindly following the President who appointed them. The checks and balances are in place. Our Constitution is working. So why do so many Americans fear a President
who can only have 30% of the power, and therefore, cannot do half of what he
claims he can?
More importantly, why are you giving a man who clearly feeds
off this negative attention so much brainspace in your life?
The President is not Thanos.
The President is….the President, limited by the Constitution.
So take a piece of wisdom from the MCU and stop putting so
much energy into our President. The entire
House of Representatives is up for re-election.
One third of the Senate as well.
Local officials, who have a greater ability to fix the problems in your
community are up for re-election as well.
All people who help limit the power of the person in the White House.
That is, after all, what our Founding Fathers intended. Who knew that the Avengers would be so wise in Constitutional law, paying attention to the people who actually held the power?
