Burning Down the House:
American Government in the Age of Trump
“The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.”
Plato, The Republic
“Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a president and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
“Many forms of Government have been tried....No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried...”
Winston S. Churchill
“To me, the democratic system represents man’s best and brightest hope of self-fulfillment, of a life rich in promise and free from fear; the one hope, perhaps, for the complete development of the whole man. But I know, and learn more clearly every day, that we cannot keep our system strong and free by neglect, by taking it for granted, by giving it our second-best attention.”
Eleanor Roosevelt, The Atlantic (1961)
On January 6, 2021, hundreds of American citizens mobbed the U.S. Capitol in an angry, unprecedented attempt to override the results of the 2020 presidential election and conduct a coup.
Those who stormed the 250-year-old seat of the American government assaulted and overwhelmed the Capitol Police, directly or indirectly causing the deaths of five people. More stunning, this mix of Americans which included police officers, veterans, CEOs, and even an Olympic athlete, sought to execute Vice President Mike Pence and other elected leaders at the highest levels of the U.S. government on hastily erected gallows on the steps of the historic white marble Capitol building.
Could this be the democracy-loving, law-abiding America I eagerly learned to admire and love through five decades of life as an American, including my elementary school education in Republican-dominated Wheaton, Illinois, a conservative suburb of Chicago?
The event sounded more like something that might happen in some distant dysfunctional banana republic or former Eastern bloc country. To me, it was the sort of thing that happens in countries that don’t have a history of or value democracy and don’t abide by the rule of law.
And yet, this tragic and violent event that unfolded on a cold, gray January day in 2021 most certainly happened. And it happened in America.
I’d long believed in American exceptionalism but in the course of a few hours, fellow citizens had shown themselves to be no better than Russian oligarchs or the grudge-bearing, warring residents of the Balkans.
Some have suggested that we invaded and occupied undemocratic, chaotic Afghanistan, only to begin to resemble it.
During the assault, insurrectionists pooped in the marble hallways of the Capitol, an act even the invading British lacked the bad manners to perform in 1812 and something Confederate soldiers never earned the chance to perform. (And one wonders if Confederate soldiers would have demonstrated such crassness had they ever managed to reach the stately hallways of their former Capitol.)
I wondered how we’d reached such a point.
Interestingly, our reaction was different a half century ago when Native Americans took over Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay to protest their treatment, disenfranchisement, and near extermination by the U.S. government and to demand that treaty obligations be upheld.
Our response?
The Indians who had taken over Alcatraz—an abandoned island and not the U.S. Capitol, mind you—were considered outlaws by both the federal government and many Americans.
A mere 50 years later, after a seditious, deadly assault on our seat of government, accompanied by threats to assassinate elected leaders and the deaths of police defending the Capitol, a good number of Americans either cheer on the insurgents or shrug.
In a remarkable turn, a sizable number of Americans seemingly no longer believe in democracy, the Constitution, or the principles of the American experiment. In fact, a considerable number, including a former president, support, minimize, or refuse to criticize those who sought to violently overthrow the American government.
What is going on?
It’s hardly earth-shattering to observe that the American government, and perhaps most governments across the globe, are in varying states of crisis and dysfunction. Democracy, once hailed as the inevitable form of government—the worst form of government except all others, according to Winston Churchill—seems to be failing.
While its retreat in some corners of the world is cause for concern, its condition in America where it has survived the longest in modern times and served as a model for well over two centuries is of grave concern.
The effects of this decay are manifold. America’s infrastructure crumbles, its health outcomes are among the worst in the world, its health costs as a share of GDP are among the highest in the world, and the list of failures and challenges goes on and on.
At one time, American government addressed the challenges of the times—from building the National Road and ports to purchasing excess crops that farmers over-produced to prevent agricultural markets from crashing.
At present, and for a variety of reasons, our government appears unable to adequately address few if any of our major challenges.
And the inability of the government to address these challenges is reflected in Americans’ attitudes toward it. As faith in government erodes, its ability to perform follows a parallel path. It’s a Catch-22 with dire consequences.
But which came first: a government marred by malfeasance or its citizens’ loss of faith in it? And more importantly, if citizens no longer have faith in their government, can that government function and that country continue to exist?
In 2016, a Gallup poll showed that only 28% of Americans were satisfied with the way the country was being governed. Polls reveal that rates of confidence and trust in government have been on a downward trajectory for decades. How low can they go and how long can these low levels be sustained before something cracks—or splits wide open, given that plenty of cracks already exist?
While there are pundits and politicians aplenty who bemoan government, few appear interested in addressing the underlying causes or the adverse effects of attitudes, let alone in serving in elected positions. It’s far easier to criticize from the sidelines than to run for office and actually work on issues of concern. And some pundits appear interested solely in making money from tossing gasoline on an America on fire.
For some, the simple solution is to rid ourselves of government completely. Others have actively worked to create, build and spread distrust and to erode both support for government and the role and power of government itself.
Of course, these same critics favor retaining certain parts of the government that they support which sometimes, perhaps not coincidentally, relates to their financial interests. In short, they propose ending programs and budget allocations for things that don’t benefit themselves, but want to see continued or even increased spending for those things that benefit themselves.
For the Freedom Caucus, in particular, eliminating all or most of the federal government was the stated aim. Some supported the major federal programs that supported themselves, family members of constituents or that they merely liked: Medicare, Social Security, defense, rural broadband, highway maintenance, mega-farm subsidies, and plenty of other programs. Did it make sense to propose dismantling the federal government but at the same time preserve its most expensive and expansive programs?
But the Freedom Caucus and its successors are not alone in choosing which programs are worthy of support. Even those who stormed the Capitol on January 6th have expectations of their government. So-called Shaman Jacob Chansley requested organic food while in prison for religious reasons—a startling and incongruous demand from someone who purports to want smaller, weaker federal government and one that doesn’t protect minority rights.
Striklingly, the Freedom Caucus and the chorus of critics who attack and question the institution of American government offer no viable alternative.
If democracy cannot survive in the country that has nurtured it for the longest period in modern times, where can it survive? And what replaces it?
One need look no further than Somalia to see the worst possible result of a weak central government. Or Russia to see the result of a strong central government that is undemocratic and only exists to support, enrich, and empower the elite.
Fixing American government—not eliminating, weakening or replacing it—is the only viable solution. At the same time, government can and should be asked to make changes, too, to both respond to Americans’ legitimate concerns and complaints and to embrace a culture of customer service.
And, realistically, what is the alternative to fixing America’s government?
In upcoming posts, I’ll explore how we got to this dangerous and tumultuous point, informed by experiences from my nearly 38-year career at the front lines of the federal government. During this time, I interacted with senators, governors, mayors, investigative reporters, cabinet level leaders, farmers, NFL players, school children, civil rights leaders, talk show hosts, school lunch pros, food bank and hospital CEOs, business owners, angry citizens, and concerned citizens—and nearly every sort of American in between.
These experiences revealed that few of us understand what government can and cannot do.
On the flip side, I’ll highlight ways in which government leaders and workers are not always responsive to the concerns and requests of citizens. These experiences have contributed to the public’s frustration and growing lack of support for these very same federal government workers and programs.
Finally, and most importantly, I’ll provide suggestions for ways government can improve and more critically, what Americans can and must do to participate in their government if our government and country are to survive.
Incidentally, most of what I’ll post was written prior to the events of January 6, 2021, including most of this post.
My fears of how and when cracks might appear have materialized. Much more urgently than when I started documenting my experiences in 2017, Americans need to reexamine their understanding of and reverence for our government.
If we truly want to destroy it, with what do we intend replace it? And have we considered what we’d be losing and what is likely to happen?
As recent events reveal, time is short.
Democracy is fragile.
The American government is frail.