Only One

This is a dangerous moment. The Last Self-Help Administration, made up of the likes of this guy who believes that power comes from the end of a gun ("and if you want a friend, get a dog"), can no longer blame the "turble situation" on their predecessors, as Peggy Noonan points out.

Never before has the American public been asked not only to believe its president, but to believe in its president. From a mimetic theory point of view, he is an "internal mediator:" one looked up to as a messiah-figure sans a true connection beyond this earthly vale of tears and trouble. Others have been given such adulation - dictators, tyrants, royalty, potentates - and, so far, only One has deserved such devotion; namely, a true and transcendent "External Mediator."

All others have resorted in dangerous times for their regime to "the end of a gun." Or its equivalent.