What America’s Founders Could not Foresee by Tom Timberman

American Democracy Circles Back.

Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Adams and Maryland’s own C. Carroll of Carrollton, mutually pledged on January 18, 1777,  their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to the independence of America from Great Britain.  And then they and many others, spent the next six years and eight months bringing it about.  

These and many others were intelligent, educated, reflective men who translated European Enlightenment philosophy into the US Constitution. It has served as a global model of creative democratic, representative government for 234 years.  

However, in 2021, data was released noting that 1 of every 6 democracies in the world ten years ago, has become authoritarian.  In the United States, millions of Americans were introduced over the past 4 years, to the seductive allure of strongman rule, and the comfort a talented demagogue offers to those willing to accept his and others’  building blocks of deceit and fantasy. 

The second decade of the 21st Century finds the founders’ democracy threatened by the very people for whom they fought, died and risked all, to bring it about: Americans.  These dedicated 18th Century converts to liberty from oppressive monarchy, could not possibly have imagined, their intended beneficiaries down the generations preferring autocracy.  

The 18th Century American conundrum the Founders faced was popular antipathy to strong, centralized government.  Thus, the drafters of the Constitution struggled to find an acceptable balance between local (state) and federal authority.  They did and it entered into force 233 years ago this month.  

Among the powers reserved to the states are some dealing with elections:

• After national census, state legislatures define congressional districts (Art. 1, Sec.2); 
• Times, places and manner of Congressional elections are set by each state’s legislature (Art. 1, Sec.4); 
• Electoral College (president) – each state legislature appoints electors, who meet and vote to determine which presidential (and VP) candidate will receive the state’s electoral votes. 

After the 11/03/20 Presidential Election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the incumbent president refused to accept the outcome, claiming, without evidence, that Biden’s Party had fraudulently stolen it from him. 

Over sixty lawsuits were brought by the former president’s supporters, based on this false claim, and were rejected by the courts.  On January 6, 2021, the defeated president aroused thousands of his followers to assault the Capitol to prevent the sitting vice president, from carrying out his Constitutional duty (Art II) to open the state certificates of  all states’ electoral college results and announce the winners.

Though the Vice President was threatened by the mob with death-by-hanging, he and a majority of both Houses of Congress, carried out their duties and declared Mr. Biden and Ms Harris, America’s new President and Vice President. 

Five people died and over 150 police officers were hospitalized with serious injurious, inflicted during the attack on the Capitol.  

Shortly after the January 20, 2021 inauguration, leaders of the former president’s party at the state level, began using their reserved election-related powers to change the “Times, Places and Manner” of the 2022 and succeeding elections. Their purpose is to reduce the number of voters expected to vote for President Biden’s candidates, i.e. people of color, the poor and others.  

They also began using their own administrative authorities to fire state election officials who refused to falsify 2020 voter outcomes to favor the former president.  In two states, the secretary of state, who traditionally manages state-wide elections, has had these responsibilities re-assigned to the legislatures’ appointees. 

The strategy continues at the county level where election committee members or supervisors and polling day monitors , suspected of favoring Mr. Biden’s Party, are being purged.   

Are the Former President’s Loyalists a threat to US Constitutional Democracy?

Yes,for two reasons.  First, their nominal political party controls 23 states totally (both governor and legislature) and 30 state legislatures.  The other party, to which President Biden and Vice President Harris belong,  controls 15 state governments and 18 legislatures. 

Second, during the past four years the use of violence to assert racial and political opinions and affect outcomes, has significantly expanded. The frequent appearance of armed militias, most recently at the January 6, 2021 insurrection, are now no longer unusual.

This is a dangerous combination that has already visited death, injury and destruction on America’s citadel of democracy.  

Tom Timberman is an Army vet, lawyer, former senior Foreign Service officer, adjunct professor at GWU, and economic development team leader or foreign government advisor in war zones. He is the author of 4 books, lectures locally and at US and European universities. He and his wife are 24 year residents of Kent County.