A thought experiment:

What if the President (not Donald Trump, just anybody) appeared in public with a boot on his head.

Just one day, there’s a press conference in the White House Rose Garden, and for some reason, the President shows up wearing a boot on his head.  It would cause talk, to be sure.  (Side note, the only person who would probably think that’s perfectly normal is @jamesofengland.)

But America is a pretty chill place, so people let it slide.  And then he starts wearing that boot on his head in cabinet meetings.  Then every day.  (I imagine he might remove it when he boards Marine One, but then again, maybe not.)  And soon the boot-on-the-head is a normal thing for him.  There’s even word that he sits by himself, in the residence, with the boot on his head.

That’s still a problem, right?

Generally speaking, a normal, stable, sane adult does not wear a boot on their head in public, except on special occasions.  If you had a friend, or a coworker, or saw a guy on the street with a boot on his head, you would have serious questions about that person’s mental stability.

That’s kind of worse when it’s the President, right?  In theory, the President makes important decisions.  He has the authority to launch nuclear strikes.  If a guy’s wearing a boot on his head, maybe that’s not the best job for him to have.

But it’s okay because he has staff and people around him who keep his craziness under control.  Sure, he can’t really make good decisions, and he yells and screams and stuff behind closed doors, and his public statements are rambling and erratic, and … yeah, the boot, but the staff has things under control.

There are whispers among staff inside the White House about invoking the 25th Amendment, and possibly removing him from office, because it’s probably not a great idea to have a President who wears a boot on his head.  But not wanting to provoke a constitutional crisis, they instead for a “two-track” presidency.  The staff, through their diligent efforts, are able to mitigate the fact that the President wears a boot on his head.  They steal papers off his desk.  They hide things from him.  They ignore his decisions.  Because if they don’t do these things, the guy with the boot on his head will probably make a mess.

But then one of those staffers writes an anonymous op-ed in the New York Times explaining all the stuff they’re doing to mitigate the fact that the President wears a boot on his head and so now everybody knows about it.  We all already knew about the boot.  There have been press stories, and expose books, and secret recordings, and all those times where the President has gone out in public with the boot on his head.

The President denies it all, of course, and rages at the unknown staffer, but things continue.

I need to pause here and point something out: It’s a problem if the President wears a boot on his head, right?

Now, some people here may shrug it off and say “Well, there’s 4% GDP growth, the boot thing must be working.”

Yeah, but the President wears a boot on his head.  You know something isn’t right there.

“Yes, but unemployment is low.”

Yeah, but the President wears a boot on his head.

“I care about his policies, not the boot on his head.”

Yeah, but the President wears a boot on his head.

“Yes, but he was lawfully elected.”

Yeah, but the President wears a boot on his head.

“Can you point to a plausible immediate danger from allowing this man with the boot on his head to continue serving as President?”

And I have to throw up my hands, because, no, I can’t.  The staff is mitigating a lot of the damage the guy with the boot on his head might do.  But here’s the thing, having a President with a boot on his head might work just fine.

You know, unless there’s a crisis.

When there’s another 9/11, the guy with the boot on his head ain’t the guy you want in charge.  The President of the United States needs to be able to handle a major crisis if it happens.  That’s his job.  And he cannot discharge the duties of his office if he walks around with a boot on his head.

It doesn’t matter that 20 percent of people pretend the boot doesn’t exist.  It doesn’t matter if there’s 4% GDP growth.  It doesn’t matter if black unemployment is at it’s lowest level since whenever.  The boot is still a problem because it shows the guy isn’t stable. When and if the bean dip hits the fan, you want a guy who doesn’t use a boot for a freakin’ hat.

And that’s the thing, you might be able to limp along while things are smooth with the boot guy as President, but if there’s a major crisis, things are going to go south very quickly.  If he wears a boot on his head, he clearly isn’t up to the job.

Now, 9/11’s are pretty rare.  Maybe there won’t be a major crisis.  Maybe there will just be hurricane responses for him to bungle.  But that doesn’t mean the boot isn’t still a problem.  So if there’s a means to remove a President who wears a boot on his head from office, we should take it, because a guy like that is really unfit to be President.