DEMOCRACY. CAN WE KEEP IT?

“Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”
“A republic…if you can keep it.” ~ Benjamin Franklin, to Elizabeth Willing Powel after the 1787 Constitutional Convention.

America is celebrating 250 years of democracy in 2026 while ironically facing what may be its most serious existential challenge ever. This quarter millennium milestone should be cause for rejoicing for the blessings of liberty, justice, prosperity, and peace conferred on us by America’s brilliant experiment in self-governance.

Instead, we observe daily outrageous acts by the Administration that ignore plain language Constitutional protections, the rule of law, and traditional democratic norms. Public sentiment is widely ignored. Masked immigration agents randomly and brutally pull immigrants and citizens from streets, cars, homes, and workplaces without probable cause or due process. Our military attacks a sovereign nation and kidnaps its leader without provocation or Congressional approval. Deadly military attacks on civilian foreign nationals take place on the high seas with no proof of criminal act, intent, or national security threat. The President openly sells influence to billionaires and extorts million-dollar “gifts” from foreign nations. The list of unconstitutional and unlawful acts proliferates. This is not how our democracy, or any democracy, is supposed to operate. How in the world did we get here? More importantly, how do we save our constitutional republic and preserve it for future generations?

The Declaration of Independence asserted the American Colonies’ right to separate from England and enumerated its grievances against a tyrannical Monarch. It articulated core human inalienable rights of life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, equality, and government by consent. These core values were based upon the social compact, an Enlightenment ideal by which the people give their consent to be governed (i.e., to abide by the laws) in exchange for the government protecting their inalienable rights and operating within its limited scope of activity, as articulated in the Preamble to the Constitution in 1787.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Since its original ratification in 1788, the Constitution has served as the supreme law of the United States, enumerating the structure, functions, and limits of Federal authority. Since 1884, all elected, appointed, and military and civilian members of the Federal Government take an oath to the Constitution, not to a President or a political faction, swearing to “support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” The three coequal branches of government are clearly not behaving as our forefathers intended and as our Constitution requires.

So how can this grievously broken social compact be saved and fulfill the Framers’ dream that we keep our republic of laws in perpetuity? Constitutional guardrails have largely failed and institutions have been sorely weakened under the brazen overreach of the current Administration. When the government attempts to pick winners, suppress competition, undermine truth, or protect secretly favored interests, it undermines the very mechanisms that serve justice and generate prosperity. When it provides public “goods,” adheres to and enforces laws, and finances itself with transparency and equity, it strengthens them. Unfortunately, we are living through a perfect storm of government corruption, brutality, and perfidy, infecting, in different degrees, all three coequal branches.

Leadership of the executive departments and agencies is ignoring their oaths and carrying out the President’s self-aggrandizing, erratic, and often unlawful urges. The Supreme Court is often failing to limit the overreach of the Executive, even when it transgresses the plain meaning of the Constitution or when the Court finds it necessary to make up new privileges that undermine equal justice under law (e.g., Presidential presumptive immunity for all “official” acts. Trump v. U.S. 2024). The Congress, too, has failed to serve as a restraint on the Executive, deferring and acquiescing to unethical, corrupt, and unlawful acts of the Administration.

Can we keep our Republic by saving it from autocratic takeover? Of course we must! There is no other acceptable outcome for freedom-loving people. Thus, it falls to all of us to determine whether America enters its next half-century under an authoritarian Caudillo or as the democratic Constitutional Republic generations of Americans have fought and died for. We each have a responsibility as citizens to ferret out truth from propaganda, to understand the existential threats our democracy faces, and to engage, individually and en masse, to make our grievances visible to our elected officials. That responsibility includes:

– informing ourselves by seeking out and using information sources widely trusted for veracity,

– engaging in respectful, lively discourse via blogs, chat rooms, letters to the editor, and official communications with our elected representatives,

– joining and participating in organized affinity groups,

– understanding and exercising our constitutional rights, gathering to peacefully demonstrate on issues of concern, and

– voting for those who commit to restoring the rule of law and Constitutional norms and against those who are failing to uphold their oath to protect and defend the Constitution.

The American People must meet this existential challenge NOW at this critical moment in our history. And, if we are fortunate enough to succeed in preserving our democracy, we must institutionalize through our education system the crucial lesson of citizen-engaged participation in countering the constant threats to our precious Constitution-based civic and political culture.

Douglas Clapp, Captain USCG (Ret.) is a member of The Steady State. His career service in Maritime Safety & Security culminated as Deputy Director of the Coast Guard’s Training & Education System, Reserve Component, and Leadership/Diversity functions. In is post-military career, he served as Senior Analyst for the Operations Directorate, USNORTHCOM as a missions expert in Defense of the Homeland and Military Assistance to Civil Authorities for emergencies and disasters.

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 390 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.