‘A republic if you can keep it’
When our republic was founded in 1789, our founders understood what ultimately destroyed the Roman Republic and Greek democracy. They knew that tyrants had crushed these past efforts at self-rule, and they tried to warn their generation and future Americans of the danger.
Benjamin Franklin told citizens they now had “a republic, if you can keep it.” Alexander Hamilton warned them about those whose “mask of zeal for the rights of the people” disguised their “dangerous ambition.” He noted the lesson of history—that the majority of those “who have overturned the liberties of republics” began with flattery, “commencing [as] demagogues, and ending [as] tyrants.” Hamilton even described what such a demagogue would be like: “unprincipled in private life desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper,” “despotic in his ordinary demeanour,” and “known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty.” He concluded that “when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity,” his probable objective is “to throw things into confusion that he may ‘ride the storm and direct the whirlwind’.”
Sound familiar? I give you Donald J. Trump, selfdescribed dictator only on day one. Would-be dictators are not subtle; they lay out their plans for tyranny. So it’s important to remember Trump’s record in office and his words, which provide ominous storm warnings about the dangers of a second term.
Trump was an agent of chaos who directed a whirlwind to sweep away norms and law. He imposed a Muslim ban, and separated migrant babies and children from their parents and caged them like animals. He tried to repeal the healthcare coverage of millions, and proposed cuts to Medicare and Social Security. He proudly gave the wealthiest huge tax breaks, and pardoned convicted criminals who were his cronies. He has boasted about his “miracle” of overturning Roe v. Wade, which has enabled politicians to impose government mandates that intrude into women’s private medical decisions. He denied, then mismanaged the COVID-19 pandemic, discouraging effective prevention, and (incredibly) encouraging the ingestion of bleach. By 2021, 400,000 were dead, and millions had lost their jobs.
He insulted our friends and allies, while praising and cozying up to our adversaries, the Russian, Chinese, and North Korean dictators. He was impeached for bribery and corruption. He refused to concede his election loss, incited a violent insurrection to end democracy — and was impeached again.
He has been held liable for massive financial fraud and, in a separate court case, for rape and defamation. Currently he faces 91 criminal indictments, federal and state, ranging from election interference, to mishandling of classified national security documents, to inciting insurrection.
Trump promises a tornado of extremism in a second term. He prevented House Republicans from passing the Senate’s tough bipartisan border security bill, to deny a win for President Joe Biden. (Border security apparently wasn’t such a crisis after all.) He tells the victims of gun violence to “get over it.” He accuses undocumented immigrants of “poison[ing] the blood of our country,” and promises to round them up, throw them into detention camps, and deport them “by the millions per year.” He plans to politicize the Justice Department, stack it with loyalists, and use it for personal vengeance against opponents. He views these opponents, not foreign adversaries, as our greatest threat, condemning critics as “thugs that live like vermin” in America, intent on destroying us — a characterization also successfully used by Hitler and Mussolini to dehumanize critics and incite violence.
Trump has invited Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to our allied democracies in NATO, which indicates his intention to let Russia run amuck in Europe. He has suggested that former military chief Gen. Mark Milley be executed. And he is willing to “terminate” the Constitution if it gets in his way, never mind that pesky oath to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution.
When a would-be dictator tells us his plans, we should believe him. Hamilton thought it “unquestionable” that the principal threat to our democratic republic was its “subversion” through demagoguery —"by flattering the [racist, misogynist, religious, and/or anti-foreigner] prejudices of the people, and exciting their jealousies and apprehensions [fearmongering], to throw affairs into confusion [chaos and incompetence of Trump’s presidency], and bring on civil commotion” [Jan. 6 insurrrection.]
Our country fell prey to Donald Trump’s demagoguery in 2016, but thankfully not in 2020, which saved our democratic institutions from destruction. As we once again confront the demagogue and would-be tyrant in 2024, we must decisively reject him to save our democracy.