As we approach the Fourth of July and our nation’s 250th anniversary, here is something I learned from a great American, “Publius:”
“The accumulation of all power, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many…may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
Publius did not tell me this directly. I came across it in one of the revered Federalist Papers, a series of 85 essays published in 1787 and 1788 designed to persuade post-revolutionary Americans to ratify a proposed new constitution.
Regarding the aforementioned Publius: This was the pen name of iconic Founding Father James Madison, chosen to honor a founder of the Roman Republic whose name meant “of the people,”
and who championed civil liberties. The two other authors of Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, also wrote as Publius.
The essays today are considered key to what the founders thought as they debated the form our new government should take after a brief period of confederacy.
Madison, who would later become our fourth president, stressed the critical importance of checks and balances among government agencies.
As we approach this milestone Fourth, one can only imagine what Madison would think about today’s Washington, where one person drives the critical decisions affecting our daily lives.
Madison would cringe at how Donald Trump has wrested power and backbone from the obsequious Congress his party leads and enjoys a largely sympathetic majority, of his own making, on the other bulwark of government, the Supreme Court.
As the Fourth approaches, what are we to make of this takeover that so neatly fits Madison’s definition of tyranny?
We have much to think about: Trump’s blinding narcissism, his needless war, his bigotry, his ICE thugs, his corruption, his felonies, his blatant mendacity, his ballroom, his vulgarity, his misogyny, his bloody UFC fights, his hatred of immigrants, his disdain for Ukrainian freedom, his fawning admiration of Vladimir Putin, and his flouting of laws set down by the very constitution Madison espoused.
Especially troubling are Trump’s attempts at erasing the chapters of American history – slavery, for example – that he finds too embarrassing to confront.
While many of us understand the remedial value of facing our historical flaws, Trump brands such self-examination unpatriotic.
Interestingly, James Madison, like many of his founding contemporaries including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, was an owner of slaves. How can we reconcile this with their uplifting language in praise of liberty? Not an easy question, but one we need introspection enough to ask.
As for the largely unchecked power Trump has gathered, here’s what Madison had to say about such abuse:
“Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is legally respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties or his possessions.”
This year on our little hobby farm in Greenville’s Apple Valley, we have replaced our worn American flag with a new one. Its stars and stripes are brilliant atop our flagpole in the sunlight of early summer.
When July 4th and the national anniversary arrive, the temptation will be great, under current circumstance, to study our fluttering banner and ask:
For whom do you wave?
Gerry Goldstein (gerryg76@verizon.net), a frequent contributor, is a retired Providence Journal editor and columnist.
