A
Liberal Dose
July
14, 2022
Troy
D. Smith
“A
Republic, If We Can Keep It: Democracy in the Balance”
Last week I gave my opinion that Trump will probably
not be indicted for any crimes because the Justice Department and the
Democratic Party would judge such an action to be too dangerous, as it would
without a doubt unleash an even greater surge of violence from his most zealous
supporters. I hope I am wrong, because that is not the outcome I hope for, just
the one I realistically expect.
I hope I am wrong because it is never a good idea to
knuckle under to bullies. When there are no consequences for bullies, they are
emboldened to be even worse. Trying to keep them mollified to keep the peace is
a recipe for disaster. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Those who would give up
essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither
Liberty nor Safety.”
And make no mistake, with the mountain of evidence we
have, failure to act would be a sacrifice of liberty. No one individual is
above the law. As Thomas Paine put it, in England the king is law but in
America the law will be king. Donald Trump is the very essence of the tyrant
the framers of the Constitution wanted to avoid. As Alexander Hamilton wrote to
George Washington in 1792:
“When a man unprincipled
in private life desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of
considerable talents, having the advantage of military habits — despotic in his
ordinary demeanour — known to have scoffed in private at the principles of
liberty — when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity — to
join in the cry of danger to liberty — to take every opportunity of
embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion — to
flatter and fall in with all the nonsense of the zealots of the day — It may
justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he
may ‘ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.’ … No popular government was ever
without its Catilines and its Caesars. These are its true enemies.”
When Franklin was asked by a woman in the crowd as he
left the Constitutional Convention what kind of government had been decided on,
he told her a republic- IF WE CAN KEEP IT.
There’s a reason I keep quoting that generation. They
knew that democracy was not guaranteed, and that it could fall.
If we allow a lifelong crook and con artist, in the
capacity of president, to corrupt justice repeatedly, try to undermine the will
of the people expressed in a legitimate election, abuse his power, collude with
racist terrorists to incite an insurrection to overthrow that election, attack
the halls of the Capitol and literally try to get his vice-president killed for
not playing along 100%... and, further, leave it open for him to run again and
to do it all over, probably with more success… if we allow all that and make no
effort to bring him to justice, we are betraying everything our forefathers
held dear and the hopes and safety of our descendants. We are gravely
endangering the future of our democracy and our republic.
The framers did not account for political parties, and
never dreamed that one day there would be a party willing to kowtow to a
demagogue and throw away democracy just so they could stay in power. It is
heartening to see that most of the people who have testified against Trump have
been Republicans who drew a line -but they should have drawn it a lot sooner,
and so should have we all. At the very least, we all need to draw it now.
Liz Cheney said “Republicans cannot be both loyal to
Donald Trump and loyal to the Constitution.” None of us can put loyalty to our
own desired policy outcomes, or to one person, above our loyalty to everything
this nation was founded on.
--Troy D.
Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at
Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.
You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE
A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE
Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com
Excellent piece
ReplyDeleteThank you Professor for calling it like it is-democracy on the line. Wake up America!
ReplyDeleteMy friend, you are RIGHT ON, in your historical assessment of today. I am not well versed on the 2000 election as I should be but I say this. A hanging Chad in Fla and SCOTUS decision was the result of the presidential election even tho Gore won the popular vote I believe. However, the Democratic party and VP Gore deemed it more patriotic, more respectful of the US Constitution in the effort to preserve this Democratic Republic to respectfully concede. 45, the wannabe authoritarian cares NOTHING about any of those aforementioned. He doesn't even care about his supporters enough to keep them from harm knowing those with weapons were not Rhee to "hurt him." Who were they to hurt?
ReplyDeleteExactly.
ReplyDelete