5 Real Threats to the American Republic | Fox News

Polls show that a large percentage of Americans are concerned about threats to their democracy. Not surprisingly, the perceived source of that threat is different for those on the left than for those on the right.

Partisan issues aside, Americans would do well to recognize the real threats facing the American republic.

The American historian Will Durant once aptly described democracies as “feverish interludes” in the history of government, understanding that long before Durant, Benjamin Franklin had answered the question of what kind of government the Founding Fathers had established with the historic answer: “A republic… if you can keep it.”

President Biden, former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris (Getty Images)

Notice that Franklin did not say whether your “leaders” could sustain it. He placed the responsibility on individual Americans.

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With that in mind, the truth is that the American republic is under significant stress today—far beyond any candidate. Here are five real threats to the American form of free government that Americans should recognize and fix.

Uncontrolled government spending

As I have written elsewhere, “No major country in history has ever ended with a balanced budget. Fiscal restraint has never been the cause of the collapse of a civilization. On the other hand, history is littered with governments that have collapsed in a flood of spending.”

The fall of the Roman Empire was hastened by hyperinflation. In the 1930s, the German Weimar Republic collapsed amid uncontrolled spending. After America gained independence, individual states engaged in spending sprees, often using their own inflated currencies, leading to increasing conflicts between states. The Founding Fathers responded by consolidating power in a more centralized federal government under the Constitution, one of the goals of which was to stabilize the economy.

The federal government is now running deficits of more than $2 trillion a year, despite the left’s claims that the economy is strong. The United States has never spent money at such a level After emerging from the crisis.

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Where spending used to be less than 3% of the economy under Thomas Jefferson, today all levels of government spend close to 35% of the economy – financed in large part by printing trillions of dollars. It’s no wonder that inflation not only devalues ​​our currency but also impoverishes millions.

Consolidation of power in the federal government

One of the lessons of history is that power consolidates over time—especially in the hands of politicians. Our founders understood this and created “checks and balances” between the three branches of government. They did not want a fast, efficient government.

They wanted the power to rest primarily in the individual states and to be incubators of politics. They “enumerated” the powers of the federal government and created the 10th Amendment, which stated: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States severally, or to the people.”

However, with spending comes power that has been consolidated in the hands of American governments, and with each such consolidation, the power of “the people” and their freedom has diminished.

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The combination of economic and political power

For most of history, political and economic power was held by the same people or a small group of people. Monarchs and/or feudal lords owned the land (the economic wealth of the time) and exercised political power over their “subjects.”

With capitalism, new wealth in the form of goods, services, and money separated economic and political power. In 1789, when the U.S. Constitution was adopted, economic power was widely dispersed among the states—far more so than in the nation’s capital. This distributed power made the early republic successful because those who held political power had limited powers and could not dictate to millions of Americans living far from the capital.

In America, this is no longer the case. Big Government has enormous power relative to its citizens. Big Government uses this power to make deals with huge economic interests, including large corporations and labor unions. This process decides public policy, day in and day out, far more than the everyday voters – and with it, our free republic is diminished.

The establishment’s obsession with maintaining power

Throughout history, those in power have sought to hold on to it. King Herod became so fascinated with the power he gained through marriage that when he realized his royal wife was no longer real, he had her, her family members, and even his two sons killed by her.

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He was not alone in history. Monarchs, princes and dictators regularly exiled their relatives and rivals, or worse, to maintain power.

In America today, government is the VERY largest industry – more than twice as large as the next closest industry, healthcare, which of course is largely funded by the government. There is a lot of money to be made in this big business – half of the richest counties in America surround Washington, D.C.

In addition, the American “intelligence” services have enormous and almost unchecked power. Together with other bureaucratic partners in government, they decide a huge part of American policy.

Of course, American politicians also love their power – transforming the American republic from a part-time government at its inception into the full-time industry that is today.

When someone suggests draining the swamp, they are threatening that power. That is why, as we have seen throughout history and today, those in power will use almost any means at their disposal to maintain that power—in direct contradiction to George Washington, who ceded his power to Congress after winning the American Revolution.

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Loss of public virtue

According to Edward Gibbon in his “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” “public virtue… was called patriotism among the ancients.” Susan Wise Bauer wrote in her work “The History of the Ancient World” that Rome was lost to “greed, corruption, pride, general decadence, and other fruits of prosperity.” The Roman historian Livy wrote of his time, “that we can neither endure our vices nor face the remedies needed to cure them.”

America today, often egged on by ambitious politicians, is embroiled in political divisions and class warfare reminiscent of the fall of Rome and ancient Greek democracy. Too few people see public service as a virtue—putting the republic at risk.

As discouraging as the above may seem, America is not lost. As the great historian Arnold J. Toynbee wrote, “I do not believe that civilizations must die, because civilization is not an organism. It is the product of will.”

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Throughout history, people and leaders have risen to meet the challenge. Humanity has repeatedly improved its lot, including going from just six democracies before World War II to more than a hundred (in varying degrees) today. Governments have reversed course and shrunk, as in Argentina today.

In general, true republics are no longer a matter of path as they were in 1789. They are now a matter of American will.

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