Our imperiled democracy
Democracy in the United States, already endangered, took a
step closer towards extinction when President Trump declared a national
emergency to reprogram federal funds in order to build a border wall separating
the U.S. from Mexico.
Warning signs that U.S. democracy has been becoming
endangered include presidents:
·
Issuing Executive Orders in
lieu of obtaining Congressionally passed laws
·
Signing statements that
identify portions of new laws that the president believes unconstitutional or
which the President states the executive branch will ignore because of policy disagreements,
attempting to exercise a line item veto when none exists
·
Refusing to spend authorized
funds in another attempt to exercise a non-existent line item veto
·
Waging de facto wars without
the Constitutionally required Congressional authorization
Over the second half of the twentieth century and the first
two decades of the twenty-first century, Presidents have employed those devices
– and others – to move government when Congress was either stalemated or the
opposition party blocked Congressional action.
Concurrently, economic inequality has been rising sharply, returning
to levels not seen since the Gilded Age.
Together, the political dysfunction and economic inequality
eerily parallel conditions in ancient Rome prior to the end of its democracy. The
poor were kept pacified through distribution of free food. Rome itself was
governed by an elected Senate and two consuls. Senators largely came from a recognized
wealthy elite. In the face of Senatorial stalemate, senators sympathetic to a consul
would vote or figuratively stand aside to allow the consul to exercise greater
authority. This increased the power of consuls. The Roman system also allowed appointment
of a dictator in an emergency situation. Declared emergencies became more
common; consuls acting as dictators gradually seized more power; democracy
became increasingly imperiled.
Julius Caesar, returning from wars in Gaul, formed a
triumvirate with Pompey and Crassus. The triumvirate used the combined military
power of Pompey and Caesar along with Crassus’ wealth to end Roman democracy.
Although the percent of the population receiving various
forms of welfare in the U.S. has remained relatively constant in the last few decades,
the percent of people receiving all forms of government assistance (this includes
welfare as well as the earned income tax credit, Medicaid, etc.) is rising.
Collectively, welfare and other forms of assistance are analogous to first
century bread distributions. Both are intended to quiet the poor in the face of
staggering economic inequality.
As in Rome, the U.S. Congress is frequently stalemated,
regardless of which party controls the House or the Senate.
Meanwhile, authority and power increasingly flow to the
executive branch, headed by the President.
Democracy, as the authors of the U.S. Constitution realized,
requires a set of checks and balances to prevent any one branch, and any one individual
or group of individuals, from acquiring too much power. U.S. democracy is badly
bent, heavily tilted in favor of the executive branch.
Democrats and Republicans share responsibility for creating
the imbalance, with each successive president since Truman contributing to the imbalance.
Under President Trump, the slide towards tyranny has rapidly
gained momentum.
President Trump publicly praises the media and reporters who
support him; he castigates media and reporters who oppose him as “fake news,”
implicitly redefining truth as what he says rather than as objectively
verifiable facts. Indeed, Trump in his public statements and interviews
displays little grasp of facts, repeatedly asserting false claims and sometimes
contradicting himself. Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to build a border
wall rests on several untruths that Trump repeatedly asserts. Contrary to
Trump, (1) the number of illegal immigrants crossing the border is declining,
not increasing; (2) illegal drugs primarily enter the U.S. through legal ports
of entry, not illegal crossings; (3) few violent criminals and even fewer
terrorists enter illegally.
Loyalty now trumps fact, pun intended. This is the behavior
of a dictator, or would be dictator, not the behavior of a democratic president.
Indeed, during the 2016 election Trump declared that he would not accept defeat
at the polls. Will he accept defeat in 2020 or, if re-elected, step aside at
the end of his second term?
The U.S. Constitution presumes that government will
generally act incrementally rather than through the major changes possible in a
parliamentary democracy. Incremental change necessitates compromise, something
that legislators from both parties increasingly seem unwilling to do (the most
recent appropriations that avoided another government shutdown are a noteworthy
exception). In the absence of compromise, Congress usually becomes deadlocked.
The executive branch then faces an almost irresistible urge to fill the
resulting power vacuum, further contributing toward a slide away from democracy
and toward dictatorship.
The Christian tradition has long identified pride as the
principle human sin. Checks and balances in the federal system are intended to
prevent members of any of the three co-equal branches (executive, legislative,
and judicial) from becoming excessively arrogant, gather a disproportionate amount
of power and thereby unbalancing equality among the branches.
Justice for all has greatly increased in the last seventy years
due in significant measure to Christian efforts. Though justice remains imperfect,
Christians now need to shift a major part of their focus to protecting
democracy in order to preserve those improvements in justice, gains certain to
be lost under a dictatorship. Defending democracy is a core, non-negotiable Christian
ethic.
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