In an August 4, 2023, Wall Street Journal Opinion, former Deputy Attorney General Jeffery Rosen points out that the threat Donald Trump poses for America’s democracy was recognized by its Founding Fathers.  Rosen writes,
“The allegations in the indictment of Donald Trump for conspiring to overturn the election of 2020 represent the American Founders’ nightmare.  A key concern of James Madison and Alexander Hamilton was that demagogues would incite mobs and factions to defy the rule of law, overturn free and fair elections and undermine American democracy.  ‘The only path to the subversion of the republican system of the country is, by flattering the prejudices of the people, and exciting their jealousies and apprehensions, to throw affairs into confusion, and bring on civil commotion,’ Alexander Hamilton wrote in 1790.  ‘When a man unprincipled in private life desperate in his fortune, bold in temper  .  .  .  is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity,’ Hamilton wrote, ‘he may ‘ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.’ .  .  .  ‘The idea of introducing a monarchy or aristocracy into this country,’ Hamilton wrote, ‘is one of those visionary things, that none but madmen could meditate,’ as long as the American people resisted ‘convulsions and disorders in consequence of the acts of popular demagogues.’”  (My emphasis.)

Today, Madison’s and Hamilton’s seeming clairvoyance is stunning!  They wrote, however, not from prescience but from wisdom regarding human history and folly.

Jeffrey Rosen goes on chronicling the tug-of-war between Americans who would “promote the general welfare” (Preamble to the Constitution) through civil discourse and democratic precepts, and those who would impose their values and beliefs on everyone—Taliban rule in Afghanistan today leaps to mind.  

While Rosen’s scholarship far outdistances mine, a couple of takeaways give me hope.  First, the anonymous proposition that, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”  Second, as I have written, “Despite uncounted shortcomings and blunders, for two-and-a-half centuries the United States of America’s government has served its citizens as well as anyone anywhere has any right to expect.”

For an historical perspective on America’s current governmental turmoil, Jeffrey Rosen’s exposition is a “must read!”

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At an August 4 Alabama rally Donald Trump vowed, if reelected, totally to dismantle the “Deep State.”  Being ignorant regarding the character and cadre behind this ominous label, I went to the web.  It turns out that the clandestine cabal behind the curtain, secretly flipping switches and pulling lever, is none other than our United States government!

In a “Forbes Breaking,” March 21, 2023, report, Donald Trump articulated a Ten-point Plan to dismantle the Deep State:

1. Restore the President’s power to remove bureaucrats.
2. Clean out all corrupt actors in our national security and intelligence apparatus  .  .  .  so that faceless bureaucrats will never again be able to target and persecute Conservatives, Christians, or the Left’s political enemies.
3. Totally reform corrupt FISA courts.
4. Establish a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” to expose Deep State spying and corruption.
5. Clamp down on government leakers who, with the Fake News, deliberately weave false narratives to subvert our government and democracy.
6. Inspectors General will be independent and physically separate from the departments they oversee, so they do not become protectors of the Deep State.
7. Establish an independent organization continually to monitor our intelligence agencies and insure they are not spying or running disinformation campaigns against the American people.
8. Move parts of the sprawling Federal Bureaucracy to new locations outside DC.
9. Ban federal bureaucrats from taking jobs with companies they have dealt with or regulated.
10. Ask congress to enact legislation limiting term limits on its members.

May former President Trump, or any President, implement Donald’s Ten-point Plan?

To address the wishes and needs of the People, Congress establishes Departments and Agencies.  The President administers these Departments and Agencies.  Does Donald’s Ten-point Plan serve the wishes and needs of the People?

“Ay, there’s the rub.”

Explicit and implicit throughout Donald’s Ten-point—some would call “diatribe”—is the supposition that the United States government is shot through with corruption.  (Curiously, throughout Trump’s four-year administration this endemic malfeasance was never mentioned, much less addressed.)  Under his presumption, Donald would retool America’s government to his specifications, clamp down on Departments and agencies, bring it all under his iron-fisted grip!  Congress and the will of the People be damned!

Despite uncounted shortcomings and blunders, for two-and-a-half centuries the United States of America’s government has served its citizens as well as anyone anywhere has any right to expect.

Donald Trump’s Ten-point Plan would replace America’s Democracy with His Dictatorship!

Donald Trump and his acolytes argue that, to bar the forty-fifth President from a second term, Joe Biden‘s justice department has indicted Trump for stealing government documents and will indict him for orchestrating and ordering a seditions assault on America’s Capitol, Congress, and Constitution.  Implicit in this thesis: Were Donald not campaigning for the Presidency he would not be charged with these offenses!  Along with this bogus allegation Donald insists, “I did nothing wrong.”

Donald Trump’s January 6, 2021, attack on the foundations of America’s Democracy and seizure of public documents defy law and must be prosecuted.  To obscure or hide these truths, thousand-dollar-an-hour attorneys will throw up legalistic smoke screens.  We don’t need a Harvard JD or 20-20 eyesight to see through this.

Just remember.  Trust your ears, your eyes.  We heard Donald Trump badger Georgia Secretary of State, Republican Brad Raffensperger, for “just .  .  .  11,780 votes.”  We heard and saw him order a mob assault on our Capitol, Congress, and Constitution.  We saw this mob attack and cause the deaths of Capitol Police Officers and desecrate our iconic Capitol building.  We saw undisputed photos of boxes of documents in a ballroom, bathroom, and storage areas in Donald’s Mir-a-Lago residence/resort!

The claim that, were Donald Trump not seeking reelection he would not be indicated for his crimes demonstrates, once again, the absurd, shallow, illogic characterizing Trumpian logic.