This Friday I found myself in the gardens of the Musee Rodin, ruminating with “The Thinker” on how to distill from Germany’s near-recession some worthwhile copy. It was near closing time, and 30 minutes had brought nothing, so I figured I’d retreat to a local bistro to tap out some filler about the ‘national emergency.’ Besides, it was drizzling. As I was about to about face, a throat cleared behind me.

“Pardon, but eez that you, Monsieur Silesia?”

I turned. Set against the dull greens and grays of a warm February afternoon, smiling simply, stood last week’s breakfast companion.

“Alexis Charles Henri Cl — ”

“Viscount! How are you?”

“Ah, I am o-kay.” He paused after the word, as if to gauge my reaction.

“And what brings you here?”

“Ah. Inspectin’ zee ‘avant-garde. That eez what this eez, oui?’”

Tocqueville gestured at the contorting copper around us.

“Er, perhaps for your gener …”

“Zee avant garde,” he squinted “usually comes ’orse mounted in formation. Any’ow, what are you writing this evening?”

“Trying to get that straight now, actually.”

“Ah, but it eez obvious what must be said — the full fearsomeness of your Constitution eez on display today!”

I fumbled for my notebook and pen as the Viscount began a stroll.

“Go on.”

“Monsiuer McCabe of your FBI has said on ‘60 Minutes’ that ‘is organization sought to remove your President from office. And now, Monsieur Mueller prepares his report for submission — or so says the press.”

“Ah.”

“Eet is a formidable thing, American political judgment.”

“Political whats-it?”

“Judgement. When your political bodies act as zee judge. Quite serious.”

“Yes, invocation of the 25th amendment would certainly be dramatic.”

“Dramatic? Non. Therein eez precisely the power of your system. We ‘ere in Europe understand ‘ow to dramatically depose our leaders.” We passed the Burghers of Calais.

“Your lawmakers,” he continued “may remove your leaders from office — at which point, the powers of these lawmakers are exhausted. They cannot apply, par example, zee penal code. This eez, ‘istorically, quite mild. As a consequence, and allow me to quote myself,” he laughed “‘Political judgment exerts all the more influence in the United States because it seems less terrifying.’ Eets mildness enables its ordinary use. Volume one, part one, chapter ehm – seven.”

We’d left the garden now, and ambled northbound

“It does feel with Congressman Schiff’s announcement that these investigations are proliferating to the point of the ordinary…”

“Precisely, Monsieur Silesia. This eez built into the design of your Constitution. And it eez why it shocks me not at all zat Monsieur McCabe informed your ‘Gang of Eight’ and zat the lawmakers did not object to ‘is investigation.”

“Because it empowered them?”

“Oui. Because eet empowered them. What political body, regardless of party, would turn down an increase in eets power?”

“I suppose that explains why for all the fuss, even Republican lawmakers prefer to protect the Mueller investigation.”

“Oui, again. If you seek to understand eet through zee partisan frame it makes less sense than eef you see it as a contest of coequal branches, Monsieur.”

Silence fell as I mulled this over. The broad flank of the Palais Bourbon emerged on our left. Tocqueville eyed the Assemblee Nationale metro stop with some amusement. As we crossed the Quai D’Orsay I began again.

“Yet it all seems irrelevant in this case, does it not, Viscount? Two years into this investigation they’re without a smoking gun.”

“Ah! But, and I wrote, ‘there is nothing more frightening than the vagueness of American laws defining political crimes.’ Article 1, Section 4 you know. ‘Treason, bribery, or other ‘igh crimes and misdemeanors.’”

“And you think there’s enough on the President to amount to all that?”

“I ‘ave not yet read enough to know about this Monsieur Trump.”

We’d crossed the Seine. The Place de la Concorde opened before us. The setting sun and dissipating clouds conspired to cast the square in pink and reddish hues.

“Then again, I suppose it does not matter. The New York Times has tempered expectations for the Mueller Report, hasn’t it? They call it a ‘roadmap’ now, for a dozen more congressional inquiries.”

Tocqueville paused, nodded, and then continued. “Regarding zees talk in your press about authoritarianism, let me remind you of chapter seven’s closing: ‘I think that it will be easy to recognize when the American Republics begin to degenerate: it will suffice to see whether the number of political judgment increases.’ Political judgment may yet be the majority’s most terrible weapon.”

With this, he vaguely gestured to the cobblestone, and turned to leave. The centering obelisk drew its shadow longer, where once stood a tall guillotine.

“But Viscount — only last week you remarked on the Constitutional checks to majority rule!”

He turned back briefly and smiled.

“Ah oui, Monsieur Silesia. Per’aps that is why conviction eez left to the Senate.”

And with that, he was gone.

________

Drawing by Elliott Banfield, courtesy of the artist.