Today’s news that Alex Jones reversed his recent decision to endorse Ron DeSantis and begged Trump for forgiveness for taking such a “foolish” stand is more evidence that Trump’s power lies in his mob boss philosophy of leadership, as well as the dutiful loyalty bestowed by his 70-ish million voters. The Jones reversal and Liz Cheney’s 37-point loss to a Trump sycophant (Harriet Hageman) continue to show how very difficult it is to swim away from the Trump whirlpool once you have drifted into those perilous waters.
After digesting these very depressing bits of news, I continue to wonder how much longer must we wait for our generation’s version of Gerald Ford’s 1974 proclamation:
“My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule.”
In times like this, it may provide a bit of solace to remember that our founding fathers understood political systems quite well, and they warned us about threats like Trump and his Republican party.
For example, George Washington’s Farewell Address (1796) took direct aim at factions, which he described as:
“...potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government...”
James Madison’s Federalist Paper No. 10 is another profound work that explains how and why a republican (lower case “r”) form of government is well suited to developing and implementing the “remedy for the diseases most incident to republican government”. The disease of which he speaks is the violence of factions. Here is a portion of the preamble of this essay (emphasis added):
AMONG the numerous advantages promised by a well constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction. …
The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public councils, have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished; as they continue to be the favorite and fruitful topics from which the adversaries to liberty derive their most specious declamations.
Part of Madison’s mission in the pamphlet was to explain why a republican form of government is preferred to a pure democracy (hint, it’s more efficient and less inclined to trample on minority rights) but he apparently didn’t feel the need to devote any space to explicitly stating why both forms of self-government (republic and democracy) are superior to oligarchy or autocracy/monarchy.
The other goal that Madison’s paper undertook was to describe how a republic can defeat the abuse of power by factions (political parties) — whether the faction constituted a majority of citizens who set out to deprive the minority of their rights, or a minority scheming to deprive the majority of theirs.
It’s the second case that America is wrestling with today, as we continue to do our utmost to rid the land of Trumpism, which has never been a majority faction and could quite easily transform itself into a Russian-style oligarchy if given another run of power.
Madison states,
If a faction consists of less than a majority, relief is supplied by the republican principle, which enables the majority to defeat its sinister views by regular vote.
By “republican principle”, he means the democratic (lower case “d”) process of voting the bums out of office.
He then adopts a statistical tack, by asserting a principal benefit of what he calls “a large republic” —
... it will be more difficult for unworthy candidates to practice with success the vicious arts by which elections are too often carried; and the suffrages of the people being more free, will be more likely to centre in men who possess the most attractive merit and the most diffusive and established characters.
Abraham Lincoln is believed to have simplified this truism with his famous quote, “You can fool all of the people some of the time; you can fool some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time.”
Undergirding this statistical maxim lies the ultimate (but not infallible) power of democracy. When a majority of the people believe strongly enough in the sanctity of free and fair elections, it becomes impossible for any corrupt conspiracy to overwelm it.
The strongest evidence that this majority will be sizable enough to vanquish the faction who would defraud America, is that a host of brave Republicans (Liz Cheney, Eric Herschmann, Michael Luttig, Gabriel Sterling, Rusty Bowers, Richard Donoghue, Cassidy Hutchinson, Chris Stirewalt, Greg Jacob) have positioned themselves within Madison’s vanguard of citizens who possess “the most attractive merit“ and “the most diffusive and established characters”.
The symbolism inherent to the Goddess of Democracy statue is that the power of the people is almost supernatural. A mob boss may be able to kill, silence, or buy off a few dozen or a few hundred politicians, but he cannot defeat 100+ million Americans who cherish the freedom to vote.
Metaphorically, the Law of large numbers holds.
But even more importantly, we need to collectively agree that democratic elections deserve to be protected more than all other freedoms (including freedom of speech, freedom to bear arms, and freedom to engage in trade). No, I’m not saying we can let the other freedoms slide away as long as we preserve free and fair voting. I’m saying that voting is the fail-safe way to defeat parasites like Trump who would eliminate freedoms for those who don’t support him. Free speech alone won’t do it. Gun ownership won’t do it. Succeeding in your profession won't do it. Only voting has that superpower.
This is our time. Our time to show the world that we can rise up to defeat the disparate dark factions (white Christian nationalists, forced birth crusaders, oligarchs, dominionists, second amendment foot soldiers, Federalist Society shamans, dark money donors, the Republican party) who have joined forces to destroy our democracy and abduct the reins of government for their vicious ends.
Statistics and rightness are on our side. With urgency, confidence and stamina, we will have our Gerald Ford proclamation in due time.
If you have friends or relatives who voted “R” in the last election, perhaps it’s time again to admonish them to consider switching their vote to USA in 2022. Just be sure to tell them that our nation’s acronym currently begins with a capital “D”.