The 5 real dangers to the American republic
Election polling shows that a large percentage of Americans are concerned about threats to their democracy. Not surprisingly, the perceived source of that threat is different for those on the Left than on the Right.
Partisanship aside, Americans would do well to head the real risks ahead for the American republic.
The American historian Will Durant once correctly described democracies as "hectic interludes" in the history of governments. Understanding that, long before Durant, Benjamin Franklin responded to the question of what type of government the Founders established, with his historic reply, "a Republic… if you can keep it."
Note that Franklin did not say, if your "leaders" can keep it. He placed the responsibility on individual Americans.
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With that in mind, it is true that the American republic is under considerable stress today – well beyond any one candidate. Here are the five real dangers to the American form of a free government that Americans should recognize and remedy.
As I have written elsewhere, "no major country in history ended with a balanced budget. Fiscal restraint has never been the reason a civilization declined and fell. On the other hand, history is littered with governments that fell in a flurry of spending."
The Roman Empire’s fall was hastened by hyperinflation. In the 1930s, the German Weimer Republic collapsed amid runaway spending. After America won its independence, the individual states engaged in a flurry of spending often with their own, inflated currencies, which led to rising conflict among the states. The response of the Founders was to consolidate power in a more centralized federal government under the Constitution designed, in part, to stabilize the economy.
Today, the federal government is running deficits in excess of $2 trillion a year – despite claims on the Left that the economy is going strong. Never before has the U.S. continued to spend at such levels after the recovery from a crisis.
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Where once, under Thomas Jefferson’s government, spending was less than 3% of the economy, today all levels of government are spending close to 35% of the economy – financed in significant part by the printing trillions of dollars. Little wonder, therefore, inflation not only is debasing our currency but impoverishing millions.
One lesson of history is that power consolidates over time – especially in the hands of politicians. Our Founders understood that and created "checks and balances" among three branches of government. They did not want a quick and efficient government.
They wanted power to rest mainly in the individual states and wanted them to be in the incubators of policy. They "enumerated" federal government powers and established a 10th Amendment that stated: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
Nevertheless, with spending comes power that has consolidated in the American governments and with each such consolidation, the power of "the people" and their freedom diminishes.
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For the vast majority of history, political and economic power resided in the same persons or small group of persons. Monarchs and/or feudal lords owned the land (the economic riches of the day) and exercised political power over their "subjects."
With capitalism, new wealth, in the form of goods, services and money, separated economic and political power. In 1789, when the U.S. Constitution was adopted, the economic power of the day was dispersed widely among the states – far more than in the nation’s capital. That separated power made the early republic successful because those in political power had limited powers and could not dictate to the millions of American living far away from the capital.
That is no longer the case in America. Big Government has enormous power compared to its citizens. Big Government uses that power to make deals with huge economic interests, including big corporations and unions. That process decides public policy, day-in and day-out, far more than every day voters – and with that, our free republic is diminished.
Throughout all of history, those in power have wanted to keep that power. King Herod became so obsessed with the power he obtained through marriage that when he was convinced his royal wife was no longer true, he had her killed, members of her family killed and even his two sons by her.
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He was not alone in history. Monarchs, dukes and dictators regularly banished their kin and rivals, or worse, to retain power.
In America today, government is BY FAR the largest industry – more than double the next closest industry, health care, which, of course, is largely funded by the government. There is much money to be made in that big business – half the richest counties in America surround Washington, D.C.
Beyond that, the American "intelligence" services wield enormous and nearly unchecked power. Along with their other bureaucratic partners in government, they decide an enormous amount of the policy in America.
Of course, the American politicians love their power as well – turning the American republic from a part-time government at its Founding to a full-time industry today.
When anyone suggests that swamp be drained, they threaten that power. Therefore, and as we have seen throughout history and now, those in power use almost any means at their disposal to keep that power – in direct contradiction to George Washington surrendering his power to Congress after winning the American Revolution.
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According to Edward Gibbon, in his "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," "public virtue… among the ancients was denominated patriotism." Susan Wise Bauer wrote in her work "The History of the Ancient World" that Rome was lost in favor of "greed, corruption, pride, general decadence, and other fruits of prosperity." The Roman historian Livy wrote of his time "that we can neither endure our vices nor face the remedies needed to cure them."
America today, often spurred on by ambitious politicians, is caught up in political division and a class warfare reminiscent of the fall of Rome and ancient Greek democracy. Too few view public service as a virtue – much to the risk of the republic.
While the above may seem daunting, American is not lost. As the great historian Arnold J. Toynbee wrote, "I do not believe that civilizations have to die because civilization is not an organism. It is a product of wills."
Throughout all of history, people and leaders have arisen to meet the challenge. Humankind has repeatedly improved its lot, including progressing from just six democracies before World War II to over hundred (in varying degrees) today. Governments have reversed course and shrunk, as in Argentina today.
Overall, true republics are no longer a question of a way, as it was in 1789. Instead, it is a question of American will.