A Republic, or a Monarchy?

Independence Day, 4 July 2024

Having been immersed in the American political ecosystem since I arrived in the United States in 1979, I have never experienced the American political experiment to be in such dire condition than it is now. Granting that the Founders established an inherently adversarial political system as a safeguard, and as a check and balance, against one segment of the system from accumulating too much power, that built-in combat arena of positional power has seemingly gone awry in the present moment in which we live.

In 2023, four criminal indictments were filed against former US president Donald Trump, who was president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Two indictments are on state charges (one in New York and one in Georgia) and two indictments (as well as one superseding indictment) are on federal charges (one in Florida and one in the District of Columbia). These indictments amount to a total of 88 felony charges.

The New York trial began on April 15, 2024 and concluded on May 30, 2024 with Trump’s conviction on all 34 charges.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him. But revealing another unresolved paradox in the US Constitution, neither the indictments nor any resulting convictions would disqualify his 2024 presidential candidacy. The Supreme Court has separately addressed Trump’s eligibility to be on the ballot and, addressing Trump’s appeal, reversed all disqualifications that were previously determined by individual states. Arguing that as president he had “absolute immunity”, his legal team brought this core rationale for his defense as afar as the US Supreme Court. Merely 3 days ago, on July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3, along ideological lines, that Trump had immunity for acts he committed as president that were considered official acts, while also ruling that he did not have immunity for unofficial acts.

The net effect of this momentous decision of the SC was to kick the indictments back to the lower courts, and have them bear the burden of sorting out the difference between “official” and “unofficial” acts, effectively prolonging the adjudication of the indictments against Trump. Furthermore, it raises new questions: Who gets to decide what is official and what is not? On what basis?

America went to war against the tyrannical rule of a king. It was the very impetus of its founding as a nation. It was the cost of freedom. The recent decision of the SC on Trump’s defense on a president’s absolute immunity, and rearing the head of a quasi-king, has made it appear that the United States is at war with itself.

A famous historical incident reminds us that, as Benjamin Franklin was leaving the last session of the Constitutional Congress, a woman asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got: a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin answered, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

That famous retort of Franklin suggested that it is the job, the right, and the responsibility of the citizen to maintain and ensure that democracy is protected within their republic. Abraham Lincoln declared that the power in this republic resides with the people. It is their duty to wield that power responsibly through its solemn right to vote in free elections that is the envy of the world.

But Franklin’s concise response has been lost to many as just a trite retort befitting folklore. But the brevity of that response should not deceive us into underestimate its bedrock meaning: that democratic republics are not merely founded upon the consent of the people, they are also absolutely and wholly dependent upon the active and informed participation of the people, not only in allegiance to a particular political party, but for its very way of life; for a republic’s way of life.

It is 2 hours past noon as I write this article. The sun is now on an arc headed slowly into the horizon, and in not too long the sun will set. May our celebration today of America’s birthday, in this most liminal, fragile, political moment in the country, be also a time of deep thinking on the very impetus of its founding. And may that deep contemplation lead us into a reckoning with the stark warning that Benjamin Franklin gave to that woman on the street (Featured image by Ning Shi on Unsplash).