So, we have reached that moment in history about which Benjamin Franklin warned 235 years ago. We had a Republic “if” we could keep it, he announced to a waiting crowd in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It was a big “if.”
While Franklin was pleased with what the framers had created, he was not optimistic that the great American experiment would endure. He expressed his concern quite forthrightly, “I believe that this (our new constitutional democracy) is likely to be well administered for a course of years and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.”
So, what was Franklin saying; what did he mean? Franklin knew that the entire foundation of our constitutional democracy (our republic) would depend on politicians who would not deliberately scheme to subvert it, AND on a citizenry that would not stand for any faction (think political Party) that would condone, let alone embrace, any affront to our constitutional democracy.
To a remarkable degree, America has remained loyal to its constitutional democracy. It has, however, often been a difficult journey. Remember, about 20% of the American colonists were unsympathetic to America’s dash to freedom and were loyal to the Crown. Even on the eve of America’s entry into World War Two, the American-German Bund rallies were eerily similar to Hitler’s Nuremberg rallies. For nearly a hundred years, the Klan was little more than the terrorist wing of the Democratic Party in the racially divided south. Yes, we’ve had anarchists, Marxists, Birchers, and others who would have Ben Franklin and our other founders turning over in their graves.
Nonetheless, these flirtations with authoritarianism and other anti-democratic movements have always been fringe movements. The only American political leader who has openly and aggressively tried to subvert our constitutional order, who sent supporters to try to stop the peaceful transfer of power in our country, has, so far, failed in his efforts, but not for want of trying.
Franklin understood that the new American republic would only endure if the preponderance of the American People remained steadfast in their commitment to the constitutional government he and the other founders had bequeathed to us. He had his doubts.
He feared, correctly, that human nature being what was (and is) would, sooner or later, produce political actors and opportunists who would sacrifice American constitutional democracy in the age-old quest for power.
And that is, indeed, where we find ourselves today. There is no credible evidence that any significant election fraud occurred in the last presidential election. Indeed, there is no finding that any state in the nation improperly certified their electors to the electoral college. On the contrary, the preponderance of evidence suggests that the 2020 presidential election was the most secure in our history, notwithstanding attempts by politicians in some states to submit the names of fake electors to the Archives of the United States.
However, the current leader of the Republican Party, and former President of the United States, declared before the 2020 election that if he were to lose, it would be because the election was rigged. He told anyone who would listen there was no way the American People would elect Joe Biden over him. He made the same absurd claim before the 2016 Trump-Clinton election, but he won that one (in the electoral college) fair and square.
Trump’s own Justice Department, his own Department of Homeland Security, his own election campaign officials, and virtually every court in the land to which he took his case found that no credible case had been made that the election had been stolen, nor was there any justification for claiming that it was. Indeed, when in court and away from the television cameras, the former President’s attorneys never alleged election fraud because to do so in court without any evidence of fraud would risk censure by the court.
Even Trump’s top data analysts told him he was going to lose the election. The only relevant attempt at fraud concerning the 2020 election has been the outrageous attempt to scuttle the peaceful transfer of power by the former President and his acolytes in Congress.
There are today scores of Republican candidates who, in order to win Trump’s endorsement, still deny the results of the 2020 presidential election. That is the price a candidate pays to have Trump’s blessing. By and large, it is the only price one has to pay.
This widespread willingness among many politicians to scuttle their oath of office to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States constitutes an authoritarian movement within the Republican Party. Several Republicans have “retired” rather than accept their Party’s unwritten demand that they embrace the stolen-election calumny. They understand as other Republicans understood a half-century ago during the Watergate scandal, that sometimes party loyalty demands too much.
There are 147 Republicans in Congress who voted to overturn the 2020 election results in the absence of any meaningful evidence of election fraud. This was a historic transgression against an oath that each of them took to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Instead, they voted to support and defend the head of their Party, who lost the 2020 popular vote by over seven million votes and the Electoral College vote 306 to 232.
The doubt Benjamin Franklin expressed that we would keep our constitutional democracy may well be playing out in this, the 233rd year of our constitutionally ratified republic. For example, last month, Republican primary voters in Arizona embraced election deniers to run for Governor, Attorney General, and, ominously, Secretary of State, the elected office that oversees elections.
An election denier has also won the Republican nomination for Governor in Pennsylvania and Michigan and Senate in Ohio. And, of course, Liz Cheney of Wyoming was roundly defeated by election-denier Harriet Hageman.
All in all, election-denying nominees for governor in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin and an assortment of election deniers running for Secretaries of State in Arizona, Michigan, and Nevada represent a potential threat to our constitutional democracy because they are running in crucial battleground states.
The list of deniers or doubters includes 185 current Republican governors, secretaries of state, attorneys general or US Senate and House members, many of whom are seeking re-election this year, and dozens of nominees for other offices. They and 258 other Republican candidates have embraced the 2020 election-was-stolen lie or have otherwise questioned the election’s legitimacy.
Some Republicans who have stood up to Trump have won primaries, such as Brian Kemp and Brad Raffensperger in Georgia. Nonetheless, the mid-term elections will largely be fought by those who have embraced Trump’s big lie and those who have refused to bow down at his altar.
This year’s election contests may well determine whether Benjamin Franklin’s great fear was well founded, that we, sooner or later, would lose our constitutional democracy, or whether the gift the founders gave us 233 years ago would endure. Game On!
All comments regarding these essays, whether they express agreement, disagreement, or an alternate view, are appreciated and welcome. Comments that do not pertain to the subject of the essay or which are ad hominem references to other commenters are not acceptable and will be deleted.
I did not realize Ben Franklin had predicated this risk. Sadly, it is true. How can letting the fear of #45 (or any other former president) control our elected leaders be what is best for our country?
Good, albeit tough communications. i don't know how anyone could really believe that Trump won in 2020. My assumption is that the majority of those noted as 'deniers' did so solely to avoid Trump's anger - but in my opinion, they would be far better off following their ethics.