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Tuesday 4 July 2017

As July Fourth is celebrated, Americans debate democracy’s fate

By HILLEL ITALIE among other issues. “We’re of Terror” during the French that “His passions are ter- dence was more an attack
AP National Writer always talking about de- Revolution. rible.” against monarchy than a
NEW YORK (AP) — In his mocracy and struggling In 1788, the year before the Historian Sean Wilentz calls manifesto for what today
4½ years as a state sena- to live up to our ideals, but French Revolution began, Trump “almost a caricature we would call democracy.
tor from Manhattan, Brad never with so many funda- Americans were deciding of the Caesar-like char- “Opposing monarchy
Holyman has handed out mental questions as we’re whether to ratify the Con- acter the (Constitution’s) doesn’t mean there’s con-
everything from flashlights doing right now.” stitution. One concern, framers so deeply feared.” fidence in democracy,”
to T-shirts at political rallies. But when activists vow to James Madison wrote in Wilentz, whose books in- he said. “And the function
But for a gathering held revitalize democracy, they the Federalist Papers, was clude “The Politicians and of the Constitution was to
soon after President Don- take democratic founda-
ald Trump’s inauguration, tions and run them through
he decided on something layers of refinement that
more substantial: allow the government to
Copies of the Constitution. separate what is popular in
“My constituents had been the short term from what is
asking me, ‘What can I do in the long-term interest of
to help?’ ‘How do I prepare the people.”
myself?’” says Holyman, a Over the past two centu-
Democrat in his third term ries, the country has be-
who has since distributed come more democratic
thousands of copies. “A than many of the found-
year ago, who would have ers wished — without ever
imagined that giving away reaching the standards ac-
the Constitution would be tivists have called for. Crit-
seen as an act of resis- ics cite partisan gerryman-
tance?” dering, voting restrictions,
Americans have disagreed the influence of money
about government and on elections and striking
civic life since the coun- income inequality, saying
try’s founding, about who the United States falls short
should vote, who should of modern democratic ide-
run for office and the risks als.
of political factions. But as In this July 21, 2005 photo, visitors watch while workers pressure wash the granite faces of The Democracy Index,
the U.S. celebrates its 241st George Washington, left, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln at Mount compiled by the British-
birthday, many say democ- Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota. The Democracy Index, compiled by the London- based Economist Intelli-
racy itself is in the dock. based Economist Intelligence Unit, ranked the U.S. at 21st worldwide in 2016, tied with Italy and gence Unit, ranked the U.S.
Trump, with his labeling the trailing Norway, Canada and Uruguay, among others. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) at 21st worldwide in 2016,
mainstream press the “en- tied with Italy and trail-
emy of the people” and ing Norway, Canada and
his disparagement of “so- don’t mean the society “men of factious tempers, the Egalitarians: The Hid- Uruguay, among others.
called” judges and other imagined by the men who of local prejudices, or of den History of American While Norway and several
traditional checks on ex- helped create it. sinister designs, (who) may Politics,” said, “Madison, other Scandinavian coun-
ecutive power, has critics “None of the founders en- by intrigue, by corruption et al., knew nothing of cor- tries are considered “full
anxious about not just a visioned our modern de- or by other means, first ob- porate glitz and reality TV. democracies,” according
given policy but the fate of mocracy, with its broad tain the suffrages, and then Otherwise, though, Trump to the index, the U.S. last
self-rule — at the same time suffrage and competing betray the interests of the is exactly the kind of figure year fell to “flawed democ-
that his supporters view his political parties,” says Gor- people.” whom the framers feared racy,” receiving low scores
rise as the kind of anti-elitist don Wood, the Pulitzer Some founders lived long too much democracy for “functioning of govern-
triumph democracy is sup- Prize-winning historian of enough to watch, and would produce.” ment” and “political par-
posed to represent. the Revolutionary War era. bemoan the political rise Stability mattered more ticipation.”
The debate extends from “Running for office was of Andrew Jackson in the than inclusiveness for the Within the accepted views
classrooms and policy insti- demagogic and danger- 1820s. Trump and support- new country. George of the time, the founders
tutes to popular culture, to ous. The founders believed ers have cited Jackson as Washington essentially did differ widely on what
the Trump-influenced stag- in equality but they essen- a favorite predecessor in ran unopposed for his two kind of government they
ing of Shakespeare’s “Julius tially meant equality of op- the White House, a popu- terms as president, and favored. Thomas Paine
Caesar” at Manhattan’s portunity. Sons of weavers list who defied the estab- was voted in by white, may have been the clos-
Public Theater and the and cobblers could go to lishment and broke down male landowners. Madison est to what we now call an
wave of dystopian best- college and become gen- boundaries against who and others called the new advocate for democracy.
sellers such as “1984” and tlemen, but weavers and might become president. government a republic, Jefferson was highly sus-
“The Handmaid’s Tale.” cobblers themselves were Trump ally Newt Gingrich, with a political hierarchy picious of federal power,
“I think it’s highly unusual not to become politicians the former House Speaker, from local to state to fed- at least until he became
and disconcerting to have and campaign for office.” has written that Trump, like eral, the leaders presum- president, while Alexander
so many people worried American leaders in the Jackson, is “an outsider and ably becoming wiser and Hamilton favored a strong
about the foundations early years exchanged ac- a disruptive force chosen more dispassionate the fur- chief executive.
of our democracy,” says cusations of being too pro- to break up existing Wash- ther removed from popular “Like Jefferson, he (Hamil-
Wendy R. Weiser, who di- British or pro-French, a divi- ington power structures.” whims. ton) wanted a natural ar-
rects the Brennan Center sion marked by two ongo- But Thomas Jefferson, in Joseph Ellis, author of istocracy to rule, by which
for Justice’s Democracy ing concerns: The country sentiments critics have the Pulitzer Prize-winning both of them meant an
Program, based at New would relapse into British- echoed about Trump, wor- “Founding Brothers” and bi- aristocracy of talent, that
York University School of style monarchy or fall into ried that Jackson “had very ographies of Jefferson and is, men like themselves,”
Law and focusing on vot- violence and lawlessness little respect for laws and Adams, said that even the Wood said.
ing rights and elections, like the murderous “Reign constitutions” and added Declaration of Indepen- Continued on Page 27