Do Republicans who refuse to “unify” behind Donald Trump risk forfeiting the White House? That’s doubtful, since polls consistently show Trump losing to the Democratic front-runner. But even if true, what shall it profit the Republican Party to win an election, and lose its republican soul?
While many have criticized Trump as insufficiently Republican, it is even more troubling that Trumpism is antithetical to America’s republican institutions. And in the long term, undermining the nation’s “republicanism” is more threatening than the outcome of any single election. Republicans, therefore, should unify behind the principle that there is no place in the Republican Party for anti-republican rhetoric.
Consider these seven principles of American republicanism.
Rule of law. “The true idea of a republic,” John Adams wrote in 1776, is “an empire of laws, and not of men.” Contrast that with this Trumpian manifesto: “If I say do it, they’re going to do it. That’s what leadership is all about.” No, it isn’t. That’s what our Constitution was designed to restrain. Or as Michael Gerson puts it, “Trump is the guy your Founding Fathers warned you about.” When a politician like Trump asks voters to pledge allegiance to him, we should all renew our allegiance to the flag and “the Republic for which it stands.”
Individual liberty. Patrick Henry defied government tyranny with “Give me liberty, or give me death!” Trump, by comparison, praises government power. He retweets Mussolini (“very good quote”), trivializes Putin’s alleged conspiracy to kill Russian journalists (“our country does plenty of killing also”), and describes the Chinese Communist massacre of pro-democracy students in Tiananmen Square as “the power of strength.” Supporters tout Trump as a leader who’ll face America’s threats. But vain flirtations with authoritarianism are dangerous signs of personal weakness, not strength.
Freedom of speech. Americans disagree, often. But we also agree to disagree. Not Trump. He sues, often. “Trump sues when he is made to feel small, insufficiently wealthy, threatened or mocked. He sues for sport, he sues to regain a sense of control, and he sues to make a point. ... But he sues, most of all, to make headlines and to reinforce the notion that he is powerful.” What would President Trump do with the keys to the world’s largest law office, the U.S. Department of Justice? Trump says he would “open up” libel laws to sue news outlets that write “horrible and false articles” about him. In his own words, “we’re going to have people sue you like you never got sued before.” Trump critics, beware!
Freedom of religion. On principle, no right is more inalienable than the free exercise of religion. And of necessity, religious liberty in a democracy requires defending the rights of all faiths. “We must all hang together,” Benjamin Franklin once warned, “or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” While Trump demagogues anxieties over Islamic terrorism, it’s worth remembering our Founding Fathers affirmed that the United States government has “no character or enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility of (Muslims).”
Freedom from corruption. To woo voters frustrated with politics as usual, Trump markets himself as a too-rich-to-buy-billionaire who can fix our politics because he has experience buying politicians. “When I need something from them, two years later, three years later, I call them, and they are there for me.” Electing Trump to fix corruption is like hiring a bank robber to provide security. The problem is not lack of knowledge, but lapse of character. And the solution is not politicians with insider information, but statesmen with indisputable integrity.
Public service. Trumpism transforms JFK’s noble sentiment of asking what we can do for our country into advertising what Trump can get for our country: “My whole life I’ve been greedy, greedy, greedy. ... But now I want to be greedy for the United States.” Trump beguiles us to believe that his greed is our gain. That would be a tragic turn for the most generous nation on earth, which after WWII rebuilt its worst enemies. Trump would remake America into his own image. Not America as respected world leader, but America as world-class taker. Our enemies spread lies about America’s “imperialist” ambitions. Trump, it seems, would embrace them.
Public civility. Where to even start? Abraham Lincoln appealed to the “better angels of our nature.” Trump incites the base anger of our instinct. Two men could not be more different.
Apologists tell us not to take Trump too seriously because there are “two different Donald Trumps.” Unlike his tell-like-it-is image, Trump is, in reality, just a salesman: “I play to people’s fantasies.” So if it’s only rhetoric, why worry?
Anti-republicanism, even if just rhetoric, is a dangerous gamble in a democracy whose bulwark against tyranny is the virtue of its institutions. Alexander Pope’s classic insight into the “monster” of “vice” is a warning against the degradation, even rhetorical, of America’s republican virtues: “We first endure, then pity, then embrace.”
Trumpism will eventually go bankrupt, leaving as debtors all who once lent it their credit. Those who respect the party of Lincoln and Reagan can hope and pray that the GOP will be among the allies of republicanism that ultimately prevail against this newest threat.
Michael Erickson is an attorney. He lives in Salt Lake City.