An interesting and worthwhile essay in Vox recently:
"
It may be time to disobey the commander in chief" by Will Wilkinson, May 26, 2017
No, Wilkinson is not promoting rebellion or even civil disobedience. Rather, it's an essay on "What is 'legitimacy' and why does it matter?" - as applied to the Presidency.
"Political power is backed by violence. It is inherently dangerous and the temptation to abuse it is great. That is why it is essential that the people who wield power have the right to do so, and why political theorists spend so much time thinking about when they do have that right, and when they don’t.
"Political authority is legitimate only when it is exercised according to the legal rules and social norms that keep it aligned with the public interest and prevent its egregious abuse. When a leader flagrantly violates those rules and norms, he effectively voids the legitimacy of his claim to power. His authority becomes authoritarian and his power becomes despotic.
"Authority is power — the power to create reasons for action and obligations of compliance in others. But this power depends entirely on the authority being real or legitimate.
He goes deep into political philosophy (with lots of polysyllabic words). But it's worth reading all of his argument, as it is impossible to summarize.
"The stability of the American constitutional order requires that each branch of the government accord some measure of respect and deference to the others. If that division of power breaks down, the rule of law corrodes and the moral basis of the government’s authority to govern breaks down, too.
"So when Trump attacks the legitimacy of the judiciary, he attacks the system of delicately balanced and constrained power that gives
him authority....
"When he fires his own FBI director to evade inquiry into his administration’s possible malfeasance, describing Comey as a 'nut job,' he undermines the legitimacy of the executive branch’s internal oversight mechanisms, which are critical to ensuring that presidents are held accountable to the law.
With every blow to the legitimacy of the institutions that protect Americans from the abuse of unconstrained power, Trump weakens his own claim to authority — and, in turn, weakens the duties of citizens, soldiers, and bureaucrats to behave as if he has any. (emphasis mine, for a TL;DR summary if you are looking for one)