The year is 2016, 240 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. And while that historic moment when a new nation was brought forth on this continent seems like a long time ago, consider this.
Do you know someone who is 80 years old? Then the signing of the Declaration of Independence was really only three, 80 year old lifetimes ago (3 X 80 = 240).
Certainly the signing of the Declaration of Independence was the spark of brilliance which allowed this nation to burst forth, but the far more difficult process of defining what this nation would be, and what it would not be, took a bloody war and another twelve years of reasoned debate to resolve.
With the adoption and ratification of our cherished Constitution we declared in inviolable form that we were giving life to an entirely new form of government, a complete break from the absolute rule of kings which had been the only form of government any man alive anywhere on earth at the time had ever known. When asked by a woman as he exited the Constitutional Convention what kind of government the delegates had given us, Benjamin Franklin is reported to have said “A Republic madam, if you can keep it.”
Two hundred and twenty nine years later that question is being put to the test.
Our unique form of government, referred to perhaps originally by Alexis de Tocqueville in his book “Democracy in America,” has been called “the great American experiment.”
And just what does that mean?
The “experiment” is whether men are capable of governing themselves. For most of the history of the world that idea was considered ridiculous. Even the story of Good Friday reminds us that during the life of Christ in the temple in Jerusalem a veil separated the Holy of Holies—the earthly dwelling place of God’s presence—from the rest of the temple where men dwelt. At the time of Christ’s death on the cross the people had been separated from laws of governance issued by God and all of the interpretations of it necessary to control their lives by that curtain and that when Christ died “the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.”
In a similar fashion the idea that men must have a king, or pharaoh, or others to rule them was all that the people of the world in 1776 knew. The construction of a government controlled by the governed tore that idea apart. And ever since the world has been watching to see if it would work, if men really could govern themselves, or needed someone smarter, more informed, better than them to make the rules, set the course, see to their security and every need. Dictatorships, Communism, Socialism and the absolute rule of kings have all been like wolves in the bushes waiting for the day that the experiment failed, drooling at the prospect of celebrating that failure and waiting for our nation to return to the ways of old.
Listening to many observers over the past few months comment about how the populist appeal of Donald Trump is being fought by Washington insiders, establishment players and the republican party alike, I am given to think that what we are witnessing is nothing less than the clash of mindsets reflective of that same battle between the elites who believe that the people are too stupid to make their own decisions and the people themselves, stupid or not.
Many people are saying that Donald Trump says stupid things, advocates for some really off-the-rails policy positions, pushes back against all forms of political correctness, bucks the trends, seems like a redneck, immature, uneducated about the issues and clearly not fit to govern since he clearly does not understand all of the intricacies and nuances of foreign policy, national security or even Washington politics.
But the people seem to want him. He is winning (so far) against the efforts to stop him, to minimize him, to defeat him even if it means a contested convention with back room deals and establishment types lining up behind their next biggest enemy Ted Cruz, who clearly hates them.
Some are saying that if Donald Trump wins the nomination it will destroy the Republican Party as we know it, but what they are not saying is that the Republican Party as we know it may be destroying itself by revealing how hypocritical it is and by revealing how much like the Democratic Party it is.
Republicans love to point out that they stand for liberty in stark contrast to Democrats who stand for bigger government. The Democrats love to point out that they stand for the little guy as opposed to the Republicans who stand for the corporations and the wealthy.
What is being exposed by Donald Trump is that they both really stand for the same thing; they want to control the government which they then use to control people who they both think are too stupid to govern themselves.
Years ago when the Kentucky legislature was considering a law that would weaken the jury system in the Commonwealth and put caps on what a jury could award injured citizens I talked to some of my republican friends in Frankfort and pointed out that they needed to do some soul searching. The very people they appealed to as being smart enough to elect them to office were being treated by this legislation as too stupid to make informed decisions as jurors and who needed the better informed judgment of the government to put limits on what they could do. So far those laws have not passed, and I submit, for good reason. The American experiment of people governing themselves is still underway; the day has not come when we have seen the concept die.
But it is 2016, Donald Trump is winning among people. His crowds are huge. His support vibrant and energetic, and the establishment, the GOP and the democrats alike are all afraid. Why?
Because it is common among those who have been in power to believe that we the people are too stupid to know what’s in our own best interest, that we are too uninformed to set the course of our nation, that we cannot be trusted to make the kind of wise decisions only those in power know how to make for us.
In other words, Donald Trump facing down the RNC is a twenty first century test of the American Experiment, which by its very definition allows for the people to make, free from top down control, brilliant decisions like the Constitution, or stupid decisions born out of ignorance.
No, I’m not saying that electing Donald Trump would be a stupid decision born out of ignorance, nor am I saying that it would be a brilliant one. I’m just saying that if the majority of the people of this nation who participate in the election process choose their candidate, that is what self-governance, is all about. And the efforts of the GOP to put a stop to that, the efforts of the DNC to put a stop to that, the efforts of the press to put a stop to that all must be met with full throated resistance.
What kind of government do we want to have? A republic madam, and I intend to keep it.
Marcus Carey is a Northern Kentucky lawyer with 32 years experience. He is also a farmer, talk radio host and public speaker who loves history and politics. As a commentator, he is “dedicated to honest and respectful comment on the political and cultural issues of our time.”