They did it again. It happens every year. My invitation to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner got lost in the mail. However, this year, I was not the only one to avoid the penguin suit and the rubber chicken. Every president since Calvin Coolidge has attended the dinner at least once. So far, President Donald Trump has yet to make an appearance as president. Instead of the kind of president they want, exemplified by Jed Bartlet of The West Wing (Democrat, professional economist, and complete fantasy), the correspondents get President Bartleby, who prefers not to attend.

The vexed matter of Trump’s attendance would probably never have arisen had he not attended the 2011 dinner as a civilian, been roasted by former President Barack Obama, and determined upon revenge. This was the first time in history that an amateur comedy routine triggered a regime change, the early speeches of Mussolini notwithstanding. The second Trump administration does not see its rise to power as the usual rotation between parties that agree on the purpose of government and the policies that will serve it. It intends to change both. This is more ambitious than former President Ronald Reagan’s program in 1980. Trump wants to dismantle the house that FDR built.