Rebuild

                The only way democracy survives after Trump is to rebuild it.  That’s true whether he is impeached, defeated in the next election or finishes out a second term.  The damage that he is personally responsible for is obvious, but it is also obvious that the foundations of American democracy were already rotting.  Trump’s presidency is so disastrous precisely because the form of democracy we practiced was created for a different reality in a different time.  We never imagined a president so dismissive of the laws and restraints of the office.  We never imagined a major political party that would be not only complicit but an active participant in the attacks on democracy.  We never imagined a system so corrupt that the richest of the rich, after stealing almost two trillion dollars in the great recession, would come back with a tax bill to steal a couple trillion more.  But here we are.

                We have been taught to revere the founders and the vision they crafted in the constitution, but every vision has an expiration date, and we’ve reached ours.  We have been amending and patching the flaws in our constitution, expanding the franchise and protections, for over two hundred years; it’s time for a teardown rehab.  Even the founders imagined and made provisions for new constitutional conventions, so they must have realized the compromise form of republic they were able to piece together would need major adjustments down the road.  Maybe as long as there was a consensus that we should take the original document and intent seriously and try to live to its standards, the prudent thing to do was not to make to many changes.  Maybe that made sense before Moscow Mitch and The Donald, but it doesn’t anymore.  We are trying to resurrect a two-party system when one of the two parties has decided to opt out of any responsibility or ethical commitment to the process.

                Our constitution was written for a class of agrarian oligarchs more interested in their own immediate economic future than the political fate of the masses.  It was written on the back of 17^th century notions of individualism and the social contract that simply don’t translate to a diverse and inclusive democracy.  The house we inherited may have looked like a Greek temple, but it doesn’t have electricity or indoor plumbing, let alone an internet connection.  Institutions like the Electoral College are vestiges of the way the founding oligarchs saw the rest of us.  If you can Google yourself, we should be able to create a secure, instantaneous way of respecting the popular vote.  Being ‘democratic’ is more than a form of government; it’s a way of life.

                I have no illusions how messy and terrible this might be.  Like every major renovation there will be delays, unexpected problems and cost overruns, but the roof is leaking and the furnace is broken with winter only a month away.  This may not be the most opportune time to undertake this rebuild, but we don’t have a choice.  We thought democracy was a given, a birthright of being an American, but we have never really invested in the work and commitment that a democracy demands.  Less than half of the eligible voters even show up at the polls.  Government, whether it’s the Federal Government or the local Zoning Commission, is somebody else’s problem.  We flaunt our ‘rights,’ but we have no problem shirking the duties and responsibilities they are based on.  There is a lot that could go wrong, but the current situation is not sustainable.

                As the impeachment proceedings pick up steam and Trump does his best imitation of a feral pig trapped in a pit of quicksand, the temptation will be to see it as a ‘one off’ presidency.  I think that is a mistake.  This is the third impeachment proceeding in less than 50 years.  We went almost 200 years with only one caused by the Civil War and the assassination of Lincoln.  This place is a mess.  Trump’s presidency is only possible in the first place in a broken system.  In no other era would he be seen as a credible candidate for the job.  As we work our way through whatever is going to happen next, we cannot be content to only do part of the job.  If we want to live in a democracy, we have to redesign one that fits our time and our challenges, just like those agrarian oligarchs did 240 some years ago.