by
MANDEL
NGAN/AFP
via
Getty
Images)
Vanderbilt
fancies
itself
the
“Harvard
of
the
South,”
but
perhaps
we’ve
let
the
institution
skate
on
that
epithet
for
a
bit
too
long.
Earlier
this
morning,
Vanderbilt
quarterback
Diego
Pavia
took
to
the
Artist
Formerly
Known
As
Twitter
to
tag
Donald
Trump
and
request
an
“Executive
Order”
to
reconfigure
the
college
football
playoffs
to
add
another
four
qualifiers.
Such
an
expansion
would,
in
theory,
bring
10-2
Vanderbilt
into
the
playoffs.
Man,
the
poor
ReliaQuest
Bowl
getting
marked
for
executive
action
like
it’s
an
elite
Am
Law
firm.
Pavia
has
been
playing
in
college
for
six
years
now,
and
is
currently
finishing
up
his
Masters
at
Vanderbilt.
Is
Civics
education
completely
broken
in
this
country
that
people
getting
graduate
degrees
from
elite
institutions
still
don’t
understand
that
executive
orders
aren’t
royal
decrees?
The
problem
is
actually
deeper
than
that,
but
yes.
Professor
Lindsey
Cormack,
author
of
How
To
Raise
A
Citizen,
conducted
research
on
American
Civics
education
and
it’s
bleaker
than
you’d
imagine.
The
country
spends
pennies
on
Civics
compared
to
other
subjects.
Not
a
great
recipe
for
a
healthy
Republic
when
just
watching
Schoolhouse
Rock
reruns
would
move
students
into
the
top
percentile
in
the
subject.
But
the
abject
failure
of
American
Civics
education
only
sets
the
table.
The
entree
of
toxic
sludge
is
the
byproduct
of
the
Trump
administration’s
attempt
to
normalize
executive
action
that
a
sixth
grader
in
the
1980s
would’ve
instantly
recognized
as
—
to
use
the
technical
term
—
bullshit.
Since
the
Donald
Trump
returned
to
office,
he’s
aggressively
issued
executive
orders
purporting
to
take
all
sorts
of
action
through
monarchical
edict.
While
presidents
enjoy
considerable
power
to
issue
orders
that
instruct
executive
agencies
how
to
perform
their
jobs,
these
orders
can’t
change
laws
because
that’s
the
exclusive
job
of
Congress.
Executive
orders
ARE
NOT
legislative
edicts
capable
of
performing
an
end
run
around
the
Constitution.
Just
as
Trump
cannot
wake
up
and
sign
an
order
functionally
repealing
the
Fourteenth
Amendment
in
between
proving
he
can
still
distinguish
between
a
tiger
and
an
elephant,
he
cannot
unilaterally
command
the
NCAA,
universities,
the
athletic
conferences,
ESPN,
and
Notre
Dame
reconfigure
their
playoff
agreements.
You
can’t
force
Notre
Dame
to
join
a
conference
let
alone
blow
up
its
role
in
the
playoff
agreement.
The
flurry
of
illegal
orders
have
—
mostly
—
failed
in
court.
And
the
administration
and
its
media
allies
have
taken
those
failures
and
converted
them
into
their
own
grievance
campaign,
attacking
the
federal
courts
for
issuing
an
historic
number
of
injunctions
blocking
executive
action
as
though
it’s
the
fault
of
the
courts
that
Trump
has
issued
almost
as
many
executive
orders
in
11
months
as
Barack
Obama
did
over
8
years.
The
administration
knows
that
most
of
Trump’s
orders
have
all
the
constitutional
authority
of
a
napkin
doodle,
but
that
doesn’t
matter
for
the
strategy.
It’s
about
acting
as
though
these
orders
are
legal.
If
powerful
institutions
acquiesce
and
act
as
though
this
is
all
legal,
all
the
better.
Attack
the
judges
who
hold
the
line
as
radical
outliers.
Wait
for
the
Supreme
Court
to
shrug
and
rip
the
guts
out
of
lower
court
injunctions.
Flood
the
zone
with
enough
orders,
and
people
will
start
to
believe
that
maybe
presidents
can
just
change
the
law
with
a
memo.
And
let’s
not
put
all
the
blame
on
business
students
like
Pavia.
Here’s
a
Miami
Law
School
graduate
—
who
absolutely
knows
better
—
peddling
the
same
argument
that
a
president
can
possess
authoritarian
power
over
college
football.
In
the
grand
scheme
of
things,
college
football
isn’t
the
biggest
issue
in
this
country,
but
this
conversation
has
grave
ramifications.
A
lot
of
America
cares
deeply
about
college
football
and
almost
all
of
them
think
it’s
broken.
Along
comes
a
cabinet
secretary
casually
suggesting
that
the
sleepy
strongman
sitting
next
to
him
has
the
power
to
wave
a
wand
and
fix
it.
And
people,
like
Pavia,
start
to
act
like
that’s
actually
possible
instead
of
a
dementia
dream
turned
official
policy.
This
is
how
authoritarianism
actually
gets
mainstreamed.
With
lower
stakes
issues
that
nonetheless
enflame
the
passions
of
many.
And
then
it
works
from
there.