A Republic, If You Can Keep It. But Can We?

Member Group : Susquehanna Valley Center

By Dr. Charles Greenawalt

What more is there to say about it?   Will this be the birth of a new hope for a Renaissance of a morally decaying Western Civilization or will it signal the collapse of modern society into nihilism, violence, economic collapse, and ignorance?

One candidate never received one vote in any primary election this year for President, and last time she ran, she finished last among all the candidates and was the first to withdraw from the field.  The other candidate is trying to replicate Grover Cleveland’s accomplishment of being the only elected President ever to serve non-consecutive terms in the White House.

This choice surely illustrates that our system of government that served us since 1787, is broken. How is it broken?  Although there are many theories on the need for reform and renewal in our federal government, two items loom over our damaged federal government system.

First, two of our four most important Founding Fathers were vocal about the need for two elements in our nation’s population that are required for it to work.  First, John Adams believed that for America to exist into the future—a strong moral system or code must underlie it.  As Teddy Roosevelt often said, “America is great because it is good.”  Second, Thomas Jefferson believed that a second necessary element for America to succeed is a well-educated populace.  While he believed in the necessity of acquiring practical, vocational skills, he also knew that for society to advance, thrive, and for its members to grow, that we should all have a foundation of reading, writing, math, and language skills augmented by a vibrant knowledge of history, economics, geography, and the sciences.  His life was spent in this pursuit.  His picture should be hung in every classroom in America.

To illustrate the crumbling moral system of Judeo-Christian values and beliefs, all we have to do is to track crime statistics through the 20th Century to the present and to track Church attendance and membership over the same time span.  Another important variable to illustrate this trend would be statistics and studies on societal mental health trends, especially those on the large array of psychological challenges facing our youth and society as a whole.  Many of these challenges have been exacerbated by the emergence of social media and the ever-present cell phone.

To illustrate the emergence of a dumbing down of society in the present age, one needs simply review the history of the Academy on this subject.  We find that the “Great American Tradition” of public education that emerged in America in the 1920s to the 1990s, has fallen apart under constant attack from the Politically Correct Movement and from moral and cultural relativism.  All the forces that despise Western civilization and its success have united to deliver non-stop blows to our educational system, our Academy, our press, our Churches, and the very foundations and history of our government.

The second item that looms over our federal government desperately in need of reform is the system’s inability to jettison an Executive (President) that is grossly incompetent or morally corrupt.  Yes, we have an impeachment procedure that is worth little in a system that has been completely politicized.  The procedure has become little more than a political whipping tool since the current Democratic Party has not shown the will that the Republican Party did in 1974 by forcing President Nixon from office with this instrument. Current national Democrats have shown little ability to discipline their own members, unless they have been critical of the Biden Administration’s border policy.

So, 2024 offers us a former President who is narcissistic, thin-skinned, coarse in public relations, and non-repentant on most of his public dealings.  However, in private, President Trump is kind, attentive, generous, talkative, and helpful.  Apparently, his public personality, especially in press relations, was forged as a businessman with business dealings in NYC—the exact opposite environment that one needs to develop an effective press relations ability in the public sphere.  Nonetheless, Trump recorded an impressive array of accomplishments during his four years in office:  1) maintaining a strong, non-politically correct military to maintain peace across the globe—this means no war in Ukraine, no war in the Middle East, no North Korean troops in Ukraine, no friction with North Korea or Iran (since they were bankrupted), and the freedom of navigation through the Suez Canal and the high seas, 2)  addressing the imbalances in foreign trade that saved essential industries for America, 3) addressing contribution imbalances for maintaining NATO, which caused many Western European militaries to modernize, 4)  addressing the security of our Southern border to keep legal immigration alive with all the provisions for assimilation, 5)  addressing the security of Taiwan that constitutes an important part of world commerce and has the world’s largest computer chip factory that we are dependent upon, 6)  keeping national and world terrorism in check, and 7) keeping a wary eye on national and world criminal activity—this kept cartels under control and American deaths from Fentanyl lower.

Trump’s opponent, of course, is the former short-tenured California U. S. Senator and state Attorney General.  Her political career accelerated as she dated Willie Brown, the former Speaker of the California House.  In the Presidential election of 2020, she was the first Democratic candidate who left the field.  Nonetheless, as a Senator and former Presidential contender, she was a great identity politics selection for Joe Biden’s running mate in the general election.  Biden needed someone from the West Coast, a woman, and a minority member.  All the boxes were checked.  As Vice President, she has been extraordinary difficult to work for—firing 92 percent of all her VP Office hires.  Apparently, she does not like to review and digest her staff’s preparation papers for meetings.  This has made her look unprepared and ineffective frequently.  She responds by throwing temper tantrums against the staff members that prepared the papers she never reviewed.  Her office was one of the worst in the federal government to work for until she became President Biden’s heir earlier this year.

Unfortunately, this Presidential election has become one of personality versus policy.  Individuals who judge political contests on personality might choose Harris; citizens who value more effective policy and policy results might choose Trump.

When will America accept the lessons of Adams and Jefferson and remedy our national plight?  Further lessons on reform and governmental results are forthcoming.
Dr. Charles Greenawalt is the Senior Fellow for The Susquehanna Valley Center for Public Policy.