I hadn’t read the Constitution in years. Or The Declaration of Independence. How about you?
I read both recently as celebrations of our 250th year ramped up. Parties, fireworks, speeches, parades, holiday fun.
This anniversary is also marked by something that has not been done in 250 years: a debate about democracy itself.
These debates involve people at all levels of our society: politicians, cab drivers, teachers, students, old, young, rich, poor. Their back and forth fill the news and social media every day.
Much of the debate is about Trump’s power as President: can he start a war without Congressional approval? Can he send national troops into cities? Can he alter or federalize the Election process? Can he imprison people without due process? Can he “weaponize” government against his enemies? Can he stack the Supreme Court in his favor? Can he restrict freedom of speech or freedom of the press? And so on.
At the 200th anniversary, 50 years ago, we proudly celebrated the success and resilience of our democracy, even after the resignation of a President for trying to game the system.
Today, irony abounds.
Our first President turned down a third term. Our current President craves one.
Our first President was so honest, a myth built up around him: “I cannot lie: I cut down the cherry tree”. Our current President lied 30,573 in just his first term.
We’ve proudly called ourselves a nation of immigrants since immigrants from Europe first landed. The world applauded, sending us the Statue of Liberty as a symbol of their admiration and our wisdom. Today, we argue about the value of immigrants to the country. We debate 14th Amendment, the notion of birthright citizenship all the way up to the Supreme Court. We have a Vice President who recently declared one of Europe’s biggest mistakes was to “open the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants.”
100% – every single immigrant – must pass the US citizenship test to become a US citizen. Only 30% of US citizens can pass the same test.
And we’re not just debating about political power. We’re also losing trust in the basic institutions of democracy.
Recent polls are telling. Only 15% of the country approves of Congress. Only 42% approve of the healthcare system. Only 35% approve of our k-12 school systems. Only 30% of Americans believe in “The American Dream”. Just over 50% have positive views of Capitalism, our economic system.
Why now, 250 years later?
There are many answers. Here are a few.
We have a President who wants to be a dictator, or at minimum a king. He is supported by a movement, Project 2025, that wants to make government more autocratic. He is backed by White Christian Nationalists (a modern name for racists) who would overturn the First Amendment’s’ separation of church and state, and, instead merge the (Christian) church and state.
Trump has clearly triggered the fury of today’s debate, but some of these conflicts were built into the system from the beginning.
The slavery issue almost closed down the Constitutional Convention, so the leaders punted it down the road… until it exploded in 1861…and today still burns like fire embers quietly glowing in the forest.
Slavery was also a critical component of the South’s agrarian economy, and an early version of an economic system called Capitalism. Which grew to become the most innovative and successful economic system in the world.
Capitalism is based on a governing system diametrically opposed to democracy: dictatorship. Dictatorship is the most efficient form of governing; democracy is the least efficient. That’s why companies are dictatorships, run top-down by individuals. What they say goes. Or else. Thus Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, etc…
From millionaires to trillionaires in a little over 100 years.
Dictatorship does not tolerate dissension. Democracy demands it. So there has always been conflict between the two.
The fulcrum that has kept balance between democracy and capitalism all these years was a culture that believed in the rule of law, as framed by the Constitution, and valued integrity over dishonesty as exemplified by The Declaration of Independence and personified by George Washington and the founding fathers.
That balance has slowly shifted over the last hundred years as capitalism’s pursuit of money and power has led to a series of laws that favor capitalism.
Three examples.
1) In 1916, when Henry Ford heard the Dodge brothers planned to finance their new car company with Ford Company dividends, Ford stopped paying the dividends, saying he wanted to invest them back into his company. The Dodge brothers took it up to The Michigan Supreme Court, which ruled that a company’s primary responsibility was to increase shareholder value, period.
2) Just under 100 years later, with the Citizens United, the Supreme Court opened the floodgates for money to pour into the voting system, turning the notion of “one person, one vote” into a sick joke.
3) States across the country are gerrymandering voting districts to minimize the impact of minority voters.
As a result the value system that started this country has been replaced by greed. The rich have grown richer, the poor have grown poorer.
Today, under Trump, we celebrate wealth and denigrate poverty. Oligarchs (Musk, Ellison, Zuckerberg, Page, etc…) have amassed huge power as our current President and his backers deliberately attempt to throttle democracy.
How do we turn all of this this around? How do we restore trust in our leaders, faith in our institutions, and integrity in our culture?
Read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It worked for 250 years. It can work now.
And vote accordingly.
