Tim Kipp, a political activist since the 1960s, is a retired history and political science teacher of 39 years. He dedicates this piece to Woody Bernhardt of Marlboro, "a tireless fighter for real democracy."
BRATTLEBORO-Not since those sweltering days in Philadelphia in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention has the United States confronted so fundamental a restructuring of the federal government. What's happening?
We are not an authoritarian society, the mainstream press says, declaring that it can't happen here - a reference to Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel about a dictatorial takeover of the United States. No, we are not heading into a coup d'état, nor are we heading into an oligarchy.
Well, in fact, we are in a coup d'etat, and we are in an oligarchy.
The Trump-Musk regime and the Republican Party are transforming how we are governed. This is not an unconstitutional assault - it is an anticonstitutional assault. Virtually every ruling tradition is being pillaged, all in the name of democracy. As the old maxim goes, "When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."
Those leaders in 1787, contrary to their stated intentions, did not resolve to reform the Articles of Confederation; rather, they set out to create a new government in the form of the U.S. Constitution.
After considerable and impassioned debate, an uneasy consensus was forged among the 13 states. At the conclusion of the convention, with philosophical differences still painfully evident, the esteemed Benjamin Franklin urged his fellow delegates to place trust in their "own fallibility" and endorse the new republic.
* * *
With all of its manifest imperfections and unremitting political and economic crises, many self-inflicted, this government has survived for nearly 240 years. Of course, through it all the elites thrived, while those not fortunate enough to be white and wealthy were obliged to endure.
Influential Federalist Fisher Ames, in defense of the Constitution, likened our new republic to traveling on a "raft which would never sink, but then your feet are always in the water."
This time in our history is different. Today, the forces of wealth and power are wielding unprecedented weapons that threaten the fundamentals of the republic. And it's not just policies that are under assault.
Unique concentrations of economic and political authority, dysfunctional legislative and judicial branches, a collapsed political party system, race and class scapegoating, and toadying by influential sectors of the mass media all combine to provide opportunities for demagogues to sell snake oil to an economically vulnerable and politically disillusioned public. This could be, in the words of the American sage Mel Brooks, a "springtime for Hitler" moment.
Just as Trump's rise to power is a symptom of undemocratic features of the political economy, an oligarchy and coup d'état can emerge from a regime that incessantly consolidates power by and for the wealthy.
Power concentration is baked into a scheme whose internal logic dictates that elite political power consolidates and expands in order to preserve and amplify economic power. Capitalism, according to noted economist Sam Bowles, is a neverending race that requires aggressive undemocratic strategies to persevere.
Well, democracy gets in the way of all of this; it organically interferes with the forces of wealth and power. Thus, elite self-aggrandizement is compulsory for survival.
Predictably, this ceaseless jockeying for advantage in the race comes at the expense of the general welfare of the people - or, as the African proverb has it, "When the elephants dance the mice get trampled."
* * *
It is widely understood that Donald Trump is not known for his intellectual curiosity or acuity. During his first term, he seldom read his briefing books, preferring to lean on his confidantes for any particulars. Presidents in part are judged by who the advisors are.
So who are some of Trump's brain trust?
In the early 1970s, Roy Cohn, the legal henchman for U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy, became a trusted mentor to Trump. Cohn bragged, "My scare value is high. My arena is controversy. My tough front is my biggest asset." He admonished Trump to never admit a mistake. Sound familiar?
Another key influencer was (is) Steve Bannon, former publisher of Breitbart News, a reactionary platform for Republican extremism. Bannon is credited with saying the goal is the "deconstruction of the administrative state." Then there's Stephen Miller, the ever-dyspeptic longtime insider, who said, according to a former colleague, "I would be happy if not a single refugee foot ever again touched American soil."
These people are not a "team of rivals," as historian Doris Kearns Goodwin describes those whom Abraham Lincoln assembled. Trump's team of advisors and cabinet secretaries are the mandatory paragons of sycophancy.
* * *
The Trump-Republican agenda is in part based on Project 2025, a wish list of extremist proposals of an influential ultraconservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation. Its ultimate goal is to challenge and repeal foundational theories, structures, and methods of how this country operates.
Their methods are straight out of an authoritarian's playbook. The process - a "shock and awe" that sabotages the rule of law - consists of serial deceit, edict, and executive orders, all in arrogant violation of congressional and Constitutional mandates and methods.
Trump's second term is a barrage of dismantling of departments and agencies and the firing of hundreds of thousands with no regard for due process or social and human consequences.
This is a coup d'état.
* * *
This Trump–Musk and Republican Party coup is not a palace revolt that merely changes the faces in power. This is not an exercise in tinkering with or modifying policy. This is not a return to upholding long-cherished principles and values or to the good old days.
This is about systemic change. This is about power - how it is structured and wielded, and for whose benefit.
Let's take a look at the coup's structural attacks on governance. We won't concentrate on the actual specifics of the daily policy plundering; rather, we'll look at the why and how of this destruction of the basic architecture and operation of Constitutional government.
While historically this governing design and process has never been perfect, it has always held the virtue of an ideal, of being a worthy democratic goal.
• Reneging on the (social) contract: The insurrectionists intend to break the social contract, philosopher John Locke's foundational principle embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of an implicit agreement between the citizens and their government, whereby the people abide by the authority in exchange for freedom and the security of a stable society.
People of good will understand that with freedom comes responsibility. This coup represents a comprehensive attack on the very purpose and methods of governing. Trump and Republicans are willfully undermining citizens' trust in their government by demolishing the Contract.
• How popular is sovereignty? Trump is sabotaging the principle of popular sovereignty, whereby government's power derives from the consent of the people.
There is no need for consent in an authoritarian regime. Do citizens now want fewer people voting with more voter suppression? Do they want the wealthy to have more control over campaign financing and who gets to run for office? Do citizens want an electoral system that they can't trust?
Not long ago, Trump - in his juvenile and artless way - mused that when he would become president, the country would be so great that there would be no need for further elections.
• Checking the power of democracy: An effective coup will subvert basic notions of how power should operate. The Constitutional principles of the separation of powers and checks and balances are designed to prevent one branch from dominating the others and to ensure the sharing of powers and accountability.
Republicans and Trump are consciously undermining that balance by promoting dubious theories such as the "unitary executive," which bestows unrestrained power to the executive. Trump is impounding funds that were congressionally authorized. He is ignoring congressional oversight, making a mockery of committee hearings and denying the Senate its advice-and-consent authority.
"I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president." Thus spake Trump, the learned constitutional scholar, during his first term.
In the early 1970s, mainstream historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. in his book The Imperial Presidency warned of the escalation and dangers of an omnipotent president. One of his subjects, of course, was Richard Nixon, who by comparison to Trump looks like a Mr. Rogers in his neighborhood Oval Office.
• A supremely political court: Revamping and controlling the judicial system is vital to institutionalizing an insurrection. The United States Supreme Court wields extraordinary powers through a legalism concocted in 1803 that fabricated a "judicial review" the irrevocable authority to determine what laws are Constitutional. This enables an unelected branch the ability to overturn a decision of elected representatives.
That power now in the hands of the Trump-Roberts court is a form of despotism. If insurgents can shape the ideological tenor of the court, then politics will replace judicial fairness, rendering the court a confederate in the unraveling of democracy.
In recent years, conservatives working through The Federalist Society have spent millions to colonize the Supreme Court with a supermajority of conservative and reactionary jurists. This hostile takeover of our highest court has turned a once-esteemed branch into an ideological bunker where the robed barons take on cases to further limit the "excesses" of democracy.
The Roberts Court has, among other things, devastated women's and immigrant rights, destroyed voting rights protections, eliminated campaign finance regulations, undermined First Amendment rights, and unabashedly championed corporate interests.
And perhaps the gravest of all, the court has put the president above the law by anointing him with unprecedented immunity.
U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the Senate's most effective judicial watchdog, describes the Roberts Court as having "advanced a far right agenda" that is "deeply out of touch with the will of most Americans." This court has virtually overturned the rule of law and enabled extremism to reign supreme.
• The political party is over: The political party process is being destroyed, thus enabling coup mutineers to demagogue their way to power. They have been aided and abetted by a circumscribed two political parties that are no longer honest or effective advocates for citizens' interests.
For a long time this system has been a poor representative of the interests of a broad cross section of the population. Class considerations and structural weakness of government have disenfranchised many. Historically, it has been up to minorities, the poor and working classes, women, and others to compel political parties to make the country live up to its founding ideals. Yes, if the people will lead, the leaders will eventually follow.
The Democratic Party - once an advocate for minorities, the poor and working classes - has over the past 50 years abandoned its grassroots focus and party building. Aided by the myopic assistance of the Clinton wing of the party, the old New Deal coalition has been abandoned in order to pander to the interests of Wall Street.
Starting in the 20th century, Republicans consistently represented business and elite interests - nothing new here. What is new and distinctive is the impact of the growing reactionary wing that gained traction in the 1970s and surged during the 1980s Reagan era.
A shrinking middle class, a tidal wave of unregulated corporate money, and a new high-tech Internet media combined with an economically vulnerable populace, providing an opportunity for cynical Republican Party exploitation.
With Trump as the carnival barker, the fringe elements of the party grew in popularity and became submissive to extremist ideas.
Today, Republicans are more of a cult than a party, while most Democrats dither as they try to figure out what they stand for besides re-election.
With the major parties in existential disarray, they are less capable of countering the antidemocratic forces of oligarchy.
The logical consequence: a coup d'état to "save the country."
* * *
Not since the Civil War have the principles, structure, and means of governance been so ferociously attacked. The Lockean social contract between the people and the government is being torn apart.
While it was not a mandate, only about 30% of the voting age population supported Trump (76 million out of approximately 259 million adults), that's nonetheless a significant portion of voters. Clearly, citizens are angry with a government that consistently ignores the real interests of the majority. They voted their frustrations, their anger, and their pocketbooks. Hey, that Trump guy is talking about my concerns.
But did they vote to promote fear and hatred to divide people by class, gender, race, and sexual orientation?
Did they vote to destroy public education, Social Security, the U.S. Postal Service, and health care?
Did they vote to politicize the Supreme Court and the Justice Department?
Did they vote to further shrink the middle class and escalate the gap between the rich and the poor or to destroy unions?
Did they vote to deny climate change or to blow up relations with our allies by abrogating treaties or starting destabilizing tariff wars?
We do know that people's contentment in life is primarily derived from a society that offers a fair chance for equal opportunity and security.
If we are like the Italian political philosopher Antonio Gramsci - "pessimist[s] because of intelligence but optimist[s] because of will" - this crisis offers a real opportunity to seek a newer world, a world where an authentic political and economic democracy can be made a reality.
And we can return to the venerable Benjamin Franklin, who, during the Constitutional Convention, would frequently gaze at the sun carved high on the chair of presiding officer George Washington.
Franklin would muse as to whether it was a setting or rising sun.
This Voices Viewpoint was submitted to The Commons.
This piece, published in print in the Voices section or as a column in the news sections, represents the opinion of the writer. In the newspaper and on this website, we strive to ensure that opinions are based on fair expression of established fact. In the spirit of transparency and accountability, The Commons is reviewing and developing more precise policies about editing of opinions and our role and our responsibility and standards in fact-checking our own work and the contributions to the newspaper. In the meantime, we heartily encourage civil and productive responses at [email protected].