Having just celebrated Independence Day, the birthday of our country, it’s worth looking at a letter from GEORGE WASHINGTON, long celebrated as the Father of Our Country, to the Marquis de LA FAYETTE who had crossed the ocean to help the Revolutionary cause. Washington wrote him from his home in Mount Vernon, on April 28th, 1788, a few months after the Constitutional Convention, over which Washington presided. Here is what Washington wrote:
“Guarded so effectually as the proposed Constitution is, in respect to the prevention of bribery and undue influence in the choice of President …. There cannot, in my judgment, be the least danger that the President will by any practicable intrigue ever be able to continue himself one moment in office, much less perpetuate himself in it – but in the last stage of corrupted morals and political depravity: and even then there is as much danger that any other species of domination would prevail. Though, when a people shall have become incapable of governing themselves and fit for a master, it is of little consequence from what quarter he comes.”
George must be turning over in his grave. The emoluments clauses were among those measures designed to “prevent[] bribery and undue influence.” Some of this country’s most eminent constitutional scholars challenged Trump’s violations of the emoluments clause in order to prevent him from taking bribes. The courts threw their challenges out. Mr. Trump did indeed “intrigue … to continue himself … in office.” We have been seeing what Washington described as “corrupted morals and political depravity” – a substantial portion of the Republican Party trying to undo the election, deny the results and re-install Trump in office.
Though a clear majority of the public voted against Trump and denies any validity to his claims, a significant portion of the public still supports the pretender of Mar o Lago. And the mathematics of the caucus system in the Senate and the primary election system in the states magnifies the power of the minority that would overturn the election. So we are not only seeing what Washington described as “corrupted morals and political depravity,” but a significant minority of the American public “have become incapable of governing themselves and fit for a master.” In size, it is not greatly different from the minority of the German population that supported Hitler. The difference has been the disloyalty of Chancellor Hindenburg in Germany versus the principled defense of democratic government by those in control in this country.
I don’t make that comparison lightly; the numbers are too close for comfort. And what is even more upsetting, is that a significant portion of the minority, who would overturn American majority rule and the rules of American democratic self-government, relishes that comparison – white supremacists on both sides of the Atlantic who will stop at nothing to retain power. Apparently they have nothing more to be proud of than the color of their skin, and no better arguments than violence, intimidation and murder. They are a disgrace to our ancestors and a threat to our country.
Ultimately a constitution is only as good as the people who make it work. Real Americans must fend off this disgrace and bring our country back to its senses.
Steve Gottlieb’s latest book is Unfit for Democracy: The Roberts Court and The Breakdown of American Politics. He is the Jay and Ruth Caplan Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Albany Law School, served on the New York Civil Liberties Union board, on the New York Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran.
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