Does second Trump term put our republic at risk?
When Benjamin Franklin was asked whether this new Constitution being hashed out was establishing a monarchy or a republic, he famously replied: “A republic, if you can keep it.”And since that day in 1787, the United States of America has continued to be a representative republic, its leaders chosen by democratic ballot, despite a number of existential threats.Sometimes, the enemy was foreign. The British, trying to claw their rebellious colony back, burned the White House in 1814. The Japanese destroyed our fleet at Pearl Harbor in 1941. The Soviets aimed their nuclear missiles at us from 150 miles away in Cuba 20 years later. Opinion bug Opinion Though the gravest threats were always from within. It was the United States, not Japan, that rounded up blameless American citizens of Japanese descent during World War II and put them in internment camps. It was the United States, not the Soviet Union, that imposed loyalty oaths and restricted freedom of expression during the years of McCarthyism in the 1950s. It was the United States, not some foreign oppressor, that let the voting rights of Black citizens be voided by terror in the South for a century.Some of these lapses were uncharacteristic. Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, was also the man who suspended habeas corpus. Under his watch, federal troops occupied the Chicago Times — no relation, alas — because a local general didn't like the tone of its editorials.But that was a time of extreme crisis. The ultimate self-inflicted wound to our republic was the Civil War, cracking the country in half for four full years of bloody conflict. More Americans died in the Civil War than in any other war.What can we expect in a Trump presidency? Where to begin?Goodbye, Ukraine — they're toast, their resistance to Russia in vain. Open season on immigrants — Trump said he'd begin deporting them on Day One, though he also said he'd build a wall, and Mexico would pay for it, and that didn't happen. In a weird way, Trump's proven proclivity for untruth now becomes a source of comfort: Is this policy or just palaver to entertain the base? Related How Donald Trump’s stunning presidential win could affect Illinois For instance, he's said he'll put Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in charge of some important aspect of American health care, and RFK has said he'd ban vaccines. Will we really subject our children once again to polio and diphtheria and whooping cough?Hard to imagine. But there's a lot of hard-to-imagine going around. Many of us are having our imaginations stretched. Get used to it.Racism? It supposedly exists only in the minds of certain people looking for goodies. America has no racist history — not one you'll find in books in the public library, anyway. LGBTQ+ Americans? Back in the closet, perhaps with the door ajar, if we're feeling generous. Certainly no books suggesting that your existence is in any way acceptable in the school library.And the free and fair elections that define our republic — what about those? Trump has said, once he is elected, Americans need never worry about voting again. More word salad? Or a promise? He has consistently undermined the legitimacy of the ballot box. For years.And the press? Let me say goodbye to you now since we don't know when the end will come. Maybe Trump will close the newspapers by executive order. Maybe, in a nation where truth and factuality have become meaningless, mere empty words in a hurricane of verbiage spinning off social media every single second, journalism might peter out on its own. Caring about veracity will be an affectation, like wearing a cape, while most Americans embrace a reality that begins and ends with what they're told by Donald Trump, the grass being green in the morning, orange at night, if he says so.I'll still be writing. I have my job to do — until the bitter end. But really, what good will it do? What good has any of it done? By the way, Franklin really did say that line about our country being a republic, if we can keep it. Because I checked, to see if there was any evidence of him uttering the words, in case it was apocryphal, like those witticisms assigned to Mark Twain.The conversation was set down in a journal kept by a Maryland delegate, Dr. James McHenry, on Sept. 18, 1787:“A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy — A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it. The Lady here alluded to was Mrs. Powel of Philada.”Elizabeth Willing Powell, a notable Revolutionary War figure. Which reminds me — I forgot to consider how women will fare under the second Trump administration. I expect there will be a lot of that. Related READ: More columns by Neil Steinberg in the Sun-Times
When Benjamin Franklin was asked whether this new Constitution being hashed out was establishing a monarchy or a republic, he famously replied: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
And since that day in 1787, the United States of America has continued to be a representative republic, its leaders chosen by democratic ballot, despite a number of existential threats.
Sometimes, the enemy was foreign. The British, trying to claw their rebellious colony back, burned the White House in 1814. The Japanese destroyed our fleet at Pearl Harbor in 1941. The Soviets aimed their nuclear missiles at us from 150 miles away in Cuba 20 years later.
Though the gravest threats were always from within. It was the United States, not Japan, that rounded up blameless American citizens of Japanese descent during World War II and put them in internment camps. It was the United States, not the Soviet Union, that imposed loyalty oaths and restricted freedom of expression during the years of McCarthyism in the 1950s. It was the United States, not some foreign oppressor, that let the voting rights of Black citizens be voided by terror in the South for a century.
Some of these lapses were uncharacteristic. Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, was also the man who suspended habeas corpus. Under his watch, federal troops occupied the Chicago Times — no relation, alas — because a local general didn't like the tone of its editorials.
But that was a time of extreme crisis. The ultimate self-inflicted wound to our republic was the Civil War, cracking the country in half for four full years of bloody conflict. More Americans died in the Civil War than in any other war.
What can we expect in a Trump presidency? Where to begin?
Goodbye, Ukraine — they're toast, their resistance to Russia in vain. Open season on immigrants — Trump said he'd begin deporting them on Day One, though he also said he'd build a wall, and Mexico would pay for it, and that didn't happen.
In a weird way, Trump's proven proclivity for untruth now becomes a source of comfort: Is this policy or just palaver to entertain the base?
For instance, he's said he'll put Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in charge of some important aspect of American health care, and RFK has said he'd ban vaccines. Will we really subject our children once again to polio and diphtheria and whooping cough?
Hard to imagine. But there's a lot of hard-to-imagine going around. Many of us are having our imaginations stretched. Get used to it.
Racism? It supposedly exists only in the minds of certain people looking for goodies. America has no racist history — not one you'll find in books in the public library, anyway. LGBTQ+ Americans? Back in the closet, perhaps with the door ajar, if we're feeling generous. Certainly no books suggesting that your existence is in any way acceptable in the school library.
And the free and fair elections that define our republic — what about those? Trump has said, once he is elected, Americans need never worry about voting again. More word salad? Or a promise? He has consistently undermined the legitimacy of the ballot box. For years.
And the press? Let me say goodbye to you now since we don't know when the end will come. Maybe Trump will close the newspapers by executive order. Maybe, in a nation where truth and factuality have become meaningless, mere empty words in a hurricane of verbiage spinning off social media every single second, journalism might peter out on its own. Caring about veracity will be an affectation, like wearing a cape, while most Americans embrace a reality that begins and ends with what they're told by Donald Trump, the grass being green in the morning, orange at night, if he says so.
I'll still be writing. I have my job to do — until the bitter end. But really, what good will it do? What good has any of it done?
By the way, Franklin really did say that line about our country being a republic, if we can keep it. Because I checked, to see if there was any evidence of him uttering the words, in case it was apocryphal, like those witticisms assigned to Mark Twain.
The conversation was set down in a journal kept by a Maryland delegate, Dr. James McHenry, on Sept. 18, 1787:
“A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy — A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it. The Lady here alluded to was Mrs. Powel of Philada.”
Elizabeth Willing Powell, a notable Revolutionary War figure.
Which reminds me — I forgot to consider how women will fare under the second Trump administration. I expect there will be a lot of that.
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