Discussing and debating political history is a cherished pastime that transcends cultural or geographic boundaries.
In America, we love to verbally joust in barbershops, basements and bars. We sit in the present, pontificating about what our course of action would have been during times of uncertainty in the past.
Some of us openly boast about how we would have reacted during a horrific historic event. American chattel slavery, the Holocaust or a mass shooting are examples.
Alternatively, it could be something that exceeded human design and control. A hurricane, earthquake or pandemic, for instance.
The circumstances might be radically diverse, but our claim is stubbornly common: “I would have done XYZ if I had been in that situation!”
Now is the time to challenge every attempt to curb free speech, every legislative maneuver that seeks to limit our rights, every policy that would reduce us to mere subjects of an authoritarian state.
Our current historical moment presents us with the opportunity to be the heroes that we conjure in our imagination. We need no capes or superpowers; all we need is courage, will and our voices.
Today, the U.S. faces a demonstrably unprecedented challenge. Less than 12 months shy of the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, we have the kind of rogue president about which many of our founders warned.
Some of their fears were generalized, such as presidents being subject to corruption by foreign governments, bribery from wealthy individuals or extortion based on illicit behavior.
Other concerns were quite specific. Edmund Randolph, the first U.S. Attorney General, worried about a president’s wartime authority and control of public funds. He was so concerned about presidential power that he referred to it as the “(fetus) of monarchy.”
Patrick Henry feared that a powerful president could become a tyrannical despot who would attempt to undo the democratic principles for which the new nation had fought the Revolution against England.
George Mason staunchly promoted a so-called “Bill of Rights” that would protect individual liberties from a monarchical president, who he described as potentially perpetrating “the most extensive injustice.”
Although Thomas Jefferson did not directly participate in debates during the Constitutional Convention, his views reflected a deep fear concerning the ability of a president to become an “elective despot.”
The Federalist Papers, which were drafted to persuade states to ratify the Constitution, said that the president’s power was purposely limited so that the people of the U.S. would elect integrous heads of state.
However, the Anti-Federalists argued that the Constitution as written lacked the teeth to limit a president’s power. They believed that he would be able to use the dearth of checks on his power to his advantage — and the disadvantage of the people.
They were also leery of a president’s power to pardon, believing that it could cause him to engage in treason without facing consequences. (Ironically, our current Supreme Court has made that fear a reality.)
Despite decades of warning about a tyrannical government abrogating our rights, the NRA and its ideological brothers are strangely silent as creeping authoritarianism flows almost daily from the Executive Branch. For example, Trump has the world’s most lethal military occupying our nation’s capital as if it were a foreign hot zone.
Most of the pretend defenders of the people’s rights have fallen silent, even as the enablers are shouting their support. The plain fact is that nobody is coming to save us — except us. Now is the time to lift every voice and shout in defense of our fragile democratic ideals.
Now is the time to challenge every attempt to curb free speech, every legislative maneuver that seeks to limit our rights, every policy that would reduce us to mere subjects of an authoritarian state.
Now is the time to be the heroes that we’ve always claimed that we would be.
Larry Smith is a political columnist for the Indianapolis Recorder.