BELIEVING IN DEMOCRACY

This blog is based on a wonderful essay by Masha Gessen, published as the main opinion piece in the New York Times for February 17, 2025.  In it, Gessen argues that Trump has floated a series of “terrible ideas,” and claims, I think correctly, that this tactic is “standard autocratic fare.”  “Bad ideas do a lot of the work of building autocracy,” the piece continues, “by forcing us to engage with them” they not only dumb down discussions, “they plunge us into an anxious state in which thinking is difficult.  That kind of anxiety is key to totalitarian control.”  Gessen, who was raised in Russia, concludes that the solution is not to debate these horrible ideas, but instead to present our own beliefs about democracy.  We should portray our vision of how a democracy can and should work to create a genuine government for the “demos” –- the people-- rather than a king, which is what Trump aspires to be.  (Most recently, when he attempted to overturn congestion pricing in New York City, he concluded by proclaiming “I am the king.”)

     These sentiments were of course at the fore during the creation of this nation.  The men who founded our government were keenly aware that they opposed a traditional monarchy which would execute them for treason if they lost.  One of their best defenses of democracy comes from James Madison.  Writing in the Federalist Papers to convince his fellow citizens to ratify the Constitution, Madison wrote “If Men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and the next place, oblige it to control itself.”

     The chief means of getting government “to control itself” was the system of checks and balances.  By dividing government into three branches –- legislative, judicial, and executive –- government would be forced to work collectively, rather than for an individual monarch.

     Most of us learned these basic American lessons in school.  Trump has currently thrown them overboard.  Claiming government “waste” and “disfunction,” he has commissioned the world’s wealthiest man, Elon Musk, to fire and hire, to ax government departments and agencies, to do the work of a tyrant for him.

     There is of course waste and disfunction in our government –- no system is perfect.  But those facts should not allow democracy to be curtailed or discarded in favor of the president’s tyranny.  Gessen concludes that this will not be easy: “because it calls for clear thought and inspired vision just when the onslaught of bad ideas, and the anxiety they engender, make it so difficult to think clearly and envision a future.”

     But that is exactly what we must do now.  A few nights ago, I attended a meeting of the Brooklyn branch of the progressive group Indivisible.  It was wonderful.  We broke into small groups and discussed what we could and should do now.  There have been a number of recent, powerful demonstrations in New York: a large march in Manhattan on President’s Day, a big gathering outside Sen. Shumer’s Brooklyn residence to urge him to combat Trump more vigorously.  At the meeting’s end, we were told to phone our representatives rather than email them, as they count phone calls and that matters.  It helps a great deal to join with others in this endeavor.  Please join me and many others in doing so to help to save our democracy.