Wrong person, wrong time
Historically, America has been the beneficiary by having the right person to lead at critical moments.
George Washington led the Continental Army in its successful war of attrition against the British Empire. He went on to serve as the nation’s first president, thereby defining the office. When the Civil War tore the country asunder, the steady hand of Abraham Lincoln became the nation’s healing balm.
America benefited by having Franklin Roosevelt as its president during its greatest challenges in the 20th century, the Great Depression and the Second World War. Lyndon Johnson was the right person to shepherd the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
But in the nation’s 250th year, it has lost some of its serendipitous mojo. The Republican Party controls all three branches of the federal government and has shown itself to be the worst option at the worst moment.
The Republicans’ oft-repeated talking points of individual freedom, limited government, the rule of law, peace through strength, fiscal responsibility, free markets, and human dignity have not worn well.
Limited government became limited accountability. The rule of law turned a blind eye to the president’s malfeasance. The fiscal responsibility added more than $4 trillion to the federal deficit. Peace through strength is currently bogged down in Iran. Human dignity overturned Roe v. Wade and, according to the Wall Street Journal, the current presidential administration is reportedly holding $2 billion in AIDS medication hostage to Zambia in return for access to mining rights.
Unable or unwilling to effectively address the issues that many Americans face, the Republicans opted to relitigate the COVID crisis. The Republican Senate’s parade of righteous indignation levied toward Dr. Anthony Fauci was a national embarrassment. Watching the hearings led by Kentucky’s Junior Senator Rand Paul, one would have thought Fauci’s actions rose to the level of evil perpetrated by Dr. Josef Mengele. They pored through Fauci’s private diary, with a vigor that should be reserved for the Epstein files.
The president, with Congress’ blessing, has run roughshod over democratic norms, using the Office to monetize his wealth. And four members of the Supreme Court upheld the president’s desires to use the line-item veto for aspects of the 14th Amendment he found objectionable.
We do, as writer James Baldwin opined, carry our history with us. Nuancing Baldwin’s critique, we carry our version of history with us, gifting it with unimpeachable validity.
Too often, it is a version of history that elicits director John Ford, rather than Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, or Alexander Hamilton, to write the screenplay. It is a disjointed melodrama that carefully delineates between good and evil. This approach invites self-righteousness into the democratic equation. One justifies his or her actions, not on the broad spectrum of the nation’s commitments, but on the terse terrain of personal comfort.
Disentangling this menagerie of incompetence will require more than changing the majority party in the Midterm Elections. The important question, as Hamilton raised in Federalist 1, “Whether societies are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force?”
Good government is not the desired outcome but an adherence to a process. The Republican leadership is marred by systematically eschewing obedience to the process. They have instead used fear and othering, corrosive aspects of the human condition, to justify their existence.
For as much as we need to safeguard our rights, there must be equal vigilance to accentuate our responsibilities. Representative government, as practiced in the United States, does not mean our civic responsibilities suffice by voting. Moreover, only 64 percent of the eligible population achieved this minimal requirement in 2024. Fifty percent may find something more engaging than casting a ballot in November.
The gateway to America’s current malaise began when then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell decided against holding hearings for Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.
With 10 months before the 2016 General Election, McConnell arbitrarily decided that the outgoing president should not nominate the next Supreme Court Justice. McConnell’s desperate gambit was viewed largely as hardball politics. Four years later, with a Republican president in office, McConnell saw no problem confirming Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett one week before the General Election, giving conservatives a 6-3 majority on the Court.
The failure to hold Republicans accountable for this chicanery led to a Supreme Court rendering an array of decisions inconsistent with the contemporary reality of many Americans. The challenge that American democracy can present, the short-term desired outcome may run counter to the nation’s long-term interests, especially if it were achieved in an unhealthy manner.
No political party should be granted exclusive receivership to manage our democratic norms. Unlike other scenarios in American history, where the right individual came forth at the right time, it would appear the right individual that America needs is standing in the mirror
.