Two Significant dates:
1789 – The founders set this new nation on the path toward true democracy.
2016 – Donald Trump set this nation on the path to Fascism.
America’s founders acknowledged that the nation they had established was unfinished and specified the problems that would require attention from future leaders — the Electoral College and division of the electorate into two main Political Parties.
John Adams said that if the problems were not fixed, America, like the other democracies through history, would commit suicide.
The present rule of voting for President is so great a departure from the principle of numerical equality, and is so pregnant also with a mischievous tendency in practice, that an amendment of the Constitution on this point, e.g., the Electoral College, is justly called for. –James Madison
Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Peter Drucker were in sync about the negative influence of political partisanship: there is nothing I dread so much as the division of America into two great parties, each arranged under its Leader (the president), and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our constitution (from Jefferson).
Although Washington sided with the Federalists, he refused to affiliate himself with them, believing that the creation of political parties was a divisive step for Democracy.
The elections of 1792 were the first ones in the United States that were contested on anything resembling a partisan basis.
Jefferson said that the Electoral College was the most dangerous blot on our constitution, and “one which some unlucky chance will someday hit.” It did hit!
In the 2016 election, 112,000 votes, 0.03% of the US population, put the Trump regime into office and, because of his power to intimidate other leaders, he ushered in an era of massive assaults against Democratic Institutions and the most heinous of crimes against specific groups of citizens.
Between January 20, 2025, and March 26, 2026, in pursuit of his Fascist objectives, Trump had signed 252 executive orders, 59 memoranda, and 135 proclamations. Executive orders are only binding on the federal government’s executive branch.
On the first day of his second term, Trump granted blanket clemency to nearly 1,600 insurrectionists, convicted of or awaiting trial or sentencing for the coup d’etat attempt he fostered on January 6, 2021.
Trump has essentially effectuated his Fascists objectives through means other than a coup. The Founders laid out the steps future leaders would have to take to achieve a Full-Democracy. But Trump has been smarter and more effective in using those same instruments to advance the cause of Fascism.
A major key to Trump’s success was that John Robert’s Supreme Court handed dominant power to the executive branch and effectively eradicated the Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances doctrines. This enabled Trump’s “abusive reign” by protecting him from the consequences of his treachery, including especially his fomentation of an attempt to overthrow America’s government.
Nevertheless, America’s Leaders could have done much more under the leadership of our presidents to finish the founders’ agenda. The instruments Trump has used to foster Fascism have always been available to fix the problems the founders laid out, but the courage of our leaders has been lacking and citizens have been equally negligent by their 95+% Incumbency Reelection Syndrome despite congressional ineffectiveness.
There had been forty-four presidents before Trump was first elected — Federalists, Whigs, Republicans, and Democrats. Beginning with Andrew Johnson, 1865, there have been only Democrats and Republicans in the presidency – 12 Democrats and 19 Republicans.
The Political System, with all of its flaws, is the controlling dynamic of governmental operations, not the specific leaders in it, irrespective of political affiliations. If otherwise, the party in power, i.e., via the president, at any epoch since 1789 could point to their advancements toward achieving the Democratic Principles that undergirded the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. However, as we could see quite clearly on November 8, 2016, Trump’s first election, that there has been a dismal, historic failure.
WE THE PEOPLE can set America back on the path to Democracy by fulfilling our enfranchisement responsibility on November 3 with a massive turnout at the polls. The people evicted Trump and his cabinet in 2020 with such a turnout; but we did not stay involved after the election to ensure that the harm done between 2016 and 2020 was rectified and that the unfinished agenda was reestablished and remained our primary focus.
“There’s only one thing more painful than learning from experience, and that is not learning from experience.”
– Archibald MacLeish
