"The framers were more than aware of the fragile and short-lived nature of republican government. “It is impossible to read the history of the petty republics of Greece and Italy without feeling sensations of horror and disgust at the distractions with which they were continually agitated, and at the rapid succession of revolutions by which they were kept in a state of perpetual vibration between the extremes of tyranny and anarchy,” Alexander Hamilton observed in Federalist No. 9, voicing the conventional wisdom of many of his peers. “If they exhibit occasional calms, these only serve as short-lived contrast to the furious storms that are to succeed.”
Adams’s warnings about the consequences of a lack of virtue land especially hard in light of the rampant dishonesty that almost defines American politics at this moment in time. This isn’t the more ordinary fudging of truth that attends politics in most places and at most times; no, this is the kind of blatant and unapologetic lying that degrades public life itself. This is going before the American people and telling them things you know are not true to gain power, and then using that power to pursue your own interests against the public good.
We have a would-be despot in the White House. But even with a rotting Constitution on the verge of crisis, this is still a Republic, and the people are still sovereign. The task, then, is to make this clear to those in power who would like to pretend otherwise."
Even "on the verge of crisis" seems a tad rose-tinted to me but Bouie, presumably, is trying to adhere to some rigorous constitutional red lines here. When Grump refuses to obey court orders then we will be in a "constitutional crisis," would appear to be his reasoning. When Grump lies, floods the zone, ignores, evades, slow walks, packs the court, or runs out the clock on legal efforts to hold him accountable, as he has successfully for going on a decade, that isn't, technically, a constitutional crisis. Got it? Comforted? And "the people are still sovereign," or independent; we're still, technically, a nation "of the people, by the people, and for the people." Or democratic. We voted, or 64% of eligible voters anyway, voted last November. Even though a hostile foreign power, and close ally to the winning candidate, has attacked our last three national elections. And potus has already, since being elected again, made two grateful references to Leon rigging the election for him. So the really-existing sovereignty of the people seems at this point debatable, at the very least. But it is not certain the American people are not sovereign and that's the thin reed we're holding onto here: that the sovereign people, the electorate, can figure out this government is bad for everyone, for them, for the US and for the world, and rise up and throw off the tyranny. Hope against hope. But please don't hold your breath. Breathe and do what you gotta do to stay strong.
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