Word to the Wise

In November 1800, on his second day in an Executive Mansion still under construction, President John Adams wrote a letter to his wife, Abigail, that included these words – "I pray Heaven to bestow the best of Blessings on this House and on all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise Men ever rule under this roof."

In 1945, President Franklin Roosevelt had those words inscribed in the fireplace mantle in the State Dining Room, where they remain today.

Since George Washington, the men who have run this country have neither been always wise nor always honest, but they have been human, with behaviors good, bad, indifferent and, in some cases, pathological.

Despite achieving through their ambition, drive and hard work the high office, what sets a President apart from everyone else is the house they inhabit and the power the voters give them for a brief period of time to administer a nation that remains a work in progress.

Government is not always answerable to the people (look at the latest failure for voting rights), but this is what Americans cherish about democracy—casting a vote for their candidate, from local tax collector to President, which makes them a part of the government that serves them.

Deep within the American spirit is the firm belief that presidents are determined neither by divine right nor wealth, but by every adult-age American registered to vote.

Voting today is under threat by anti-democratic forces unleashed by former Republican President Donald Trump and his failed attempt to thwart the Constitution to keep his grip on power. No longer in power, Trump now encourages lawmakers in state houses his party controls to draft and pass laws to suppress, if not altogether deny, Americans their right.

No President in the history of the Republic attempted such autocratic moves and for such a petty narcissistic reason—he was embarrassed to look like a loser. That’s an autocratic trait that becomes increasingly dangerous when those around the autocrat feed his narcissism.

Trump turned to loyalists among his staff, Congress, state houses, former and active military, the judiciary, law firms and the GOP in his effort to steal the 2020 election. They spread disproven claims of voter fraud, swamped the courts with one baseless lawsuit after another, and organized a coup attempt that left five dead.

In contrast, Trump’s predecessors, whether they won or lost, relied on their abiding faith in the will of the voters, the Constitution and the rule of law. They also accepted their loss.

In light of the hundreds of investigations and arrests by the Justice Department related to the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, and the hundreds of witnesses interviewed by the House’s January 6th Committee, can we ever again expect, as Adams prayed, “honest and wise Men [and women]” to occupy the White House?

That’s relative, of course, but what about future Oval Office occupants?

Trump’s strongman approach has inspired like-minded candidates for local, state and federal office. Since his 2016 election, Republican voters seem to show preference for autocratic leaders who rule rather than democratic leaders who govern. They should be careful what they wish for.

Preference for autocratic rule has simmered in the GOP for decades. Conservative congressional members, governors and state and local elected officials started to show disdain for democracy when they refused to accept the legitimate election of the first African American as president, Barack Obama. Instead, they entertained conspiracy theories about his birthplace.

It was not just his skin color that riled them, but Obama’s election represented the progressive sentiment they don’t want to admit runs deep among voters.

Since the 1990s, GOP conservatives have struggled to reshape a nation that was forged through depression and war on Rooseveltian principles (that’s FDR and Teddy) that government would help ensure fairness and equality for all. New Deal programs like Social Security and the Fair Labor Standards Act (provided the minimum wage, banned child labor, etc.) ingrained that philosophy in federal policy and the American mindset.

Unable to get a majority of American voters to agree to dismantling such programs, to returning to an era when business dictated to government what kind of government voters would get, the GOP turned to building a conservative-dominant Supreme Court that could help achieve what the party long sought, to drown government “in the bathtub.”

In this effort, Republican leader and Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell ruptured Senate rules and decorum to block Obama from appointing a justice, leaving a vacancy for the next President, which McConnell hoped would not be a Democrat. Seeing the chance to perhaps secure even more justices, he and the GOP went for Trump, despite their grave doubts about the man.

As President, Trump was able to appoint three conservative justices for a 6-3 majority that has demonstrated a dislike for Rooseveltian principles. It recently overruled mandating vaccines in the workplace, which means those who take measures to protect themselves and others around them are subject to the unvaccinated worker who can freely infect fellow workers, even some who may be immuno-compromised, and face no consequences.

Now, following Trump’s presidency and its one-year aftermath, the prominently white GOP is essentially an autocratic movement. A majority of Republican voters, contrary to all evidence, believe Trump’s lie that Joe Biden stole the election. In some of the state’s the party controls, Republicans enacted laws that allow one person or a small group of persons to decide the winners of elections no matter the will of the people or the principles of the Constitution. GOP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to create an election police force answerable to him.

As history shows, autocracies never serve the people and certainly never end well. Autocratic leaders are consumed with serving themselves, regardless of the damage to their nation. Just look at what Vladimir Putin has done to Russia and some of his neighbors like Ukraine. Look at what two of the world’s most notorious autocrats – Hitler and Mussolini – did to Germany and Italy. Look what Saddam Hussein did to Iraq.

The Founding Fathers chose democracy because – contrary to Trump’s “I alone can fix it” claim – one person cannot effectively lead a nation without advice, consent and compromise with voters and their chosen representatives. The three-branch system – executive, legislative and judicial – ensures checks and balances. There is neither checks nor balances in an autocracy.

A word to the pro-autocratic forces moving to re-make America, keep in mind that no autocratic ruler has proven honest or wise, just harmful and destructive.