Watching the national news every day can be deeply depressing. Donald Trump’s latest tirade, the details of his never-ending legal troubles, and Chicken Little warnings about Joe Biden’s debilitating aging frailty may send even the bravest among us fleeing to the nearest cave outside communication range. But we must remember that the American democratic experiment is not a sprint. It is a marathon that has weathered devastating storms in the past. Civil wars, world wars, economic depressions, the Vietnam War/Civil Rights turmoil of the 1960s, Watergate, too many presidential assassinations and assassination attempts have all provided opportunities for our system of government, based on the consent of the governed, to crumble. Yet it has survived.
A consistent element of our success has been a combination of strong institutions and a willingness to mature those institutions as the country evolves. Our Founding Fathers are heaped with praise, and rightly so, for creating such a unique form of government in the 18th century. Even more admirable is their vision in 1787, when they recognized that nothing they created would last forever.
The shape, size, and demographics of the country were changing even as the U.S. Constitution was being debated and ratified, and the Framers were under pressure to prepare to adapt to changing national conditions in the future. The 27 amendments enacted since 1787 are a testament to the flexibility of the system. The institutions that Congress established to run a government across the size of a continent are important. They are the backbone of our system of government, preventing any one person from blowing everything up. They have served this country well for 237 years. In these times of confusion with the news and the presidential election, we must retain faith that they will continue to serve us well.
Speaking of campaigns, what the daily news tells us is that these are not times to be complacent. We need hardworking men and women to protect our institutions. As the saying goes, “All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.”
I believe him when he says he wants to use the institutions of the U.S. government as tools for his own personal vendetta. I believe him when he wants to solicit bribes from the oil industry to fund his campaign, in exchange for even more exorbitant tax cuts and greater access to protected areas for oil and gas extraction. I believe him when he wants to violate U.S. law and the constitutional protection that prohibits the use of regular U.S. military forces in domestic law enforcement activities. Perhaps most dangerously, he continues to lie about the 2020 election, to indoctrinate an ignorant and gullible public with promises he did not keep in his first administration and has no intention of keeping in his second, and to worship the most glaring example of men bent on using power for their own gain at the expense of their country.
The 2024 election presents a clear choice. A MAGA-controlled Republican Party would bankrupt the country further to give even more generous tax cuts to their wealthy patrons, more deeply institutionalize government control over women who make up half the country’s population, continue to marginalize minority voting rights so a shrinking demographic of the American electorate can win, further destroy the sacred wall between church and state, and put the health and welfare of government agencies in the hands of leaders who don’t care about anything but themselves. Democrats propose to continue their agenda of job growth, wage growth, and infrastructure building that could actually improve the lives of average Americans.
Our institutions have held this great country together for almost 250 years, and they can continue to hold it together if good people step forward and take action. Sitting back and hoping someone else will step up is not the answer. Trump's purported policy of retaliation is not just a list of policy differences with Democrats; it is a roadmap for fundamentally changing the very character of our country and the institutions that have brought us to this point in history. Now is the time to stand up and speak out.
More: Opinion: Trump's MAGA Republican Party bears no resemblance to Ronald Reagan's Republican Party
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Dr. Brad Gutierrez is a retired U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, political science professor, military diplomat, senior public policy official, and currently a Marshall-based woodworker and non-fiction author.
