Fleeting consideration of any commonality between Trump and Latin American political history is not unfounded. As I learned upon return home, it's part of discussion within the rarefied confines of the University of Chicago, where former law school faculty member Barack Obama returned Monday for his post-presidential vacation coming.

Eric Posner, a current law school faculty member (and serial blogger), has constructed an eight-class course that has touched upon the Latin American experience and the ascension of Trump.

It's not your basic summer beach reading, but the academic texts and mainstream articles relied upon for Class No. 2 a few weeks back included "Populism and Competitive Authoritarianism in the Andes" by Steven Levitsky and James Loxton; "Venezuela: Crowding Out the Opposition" by Javier Corrales and Michael Penfold-Becerra; "Latin American Presidencies Interrupted" by Arturo Valenzuela and "Life in Authoritarian States Is Mostly Boring and Tolerable" by Thomas Pepinsky.

It's all done under the heading of "Trump and the Separation of Powers."

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