After nearly five years of the Trump reign, the siege on democracy intensifies. Citizens have learned much about the intentions and the trajectory of the rebellion. This is not an unconstitutional assault, it is an anti-constitutional assault.

The perpetrators of the coup have also learned a great deal about organizing and escalating their crusade against democracy.

Who would have thought we would be facing the democratic struggle of our lifetime? Well, actually large sectors of our society are all to familiar with this battle; the historically marginalized have always fought to win the fruits of democracy. The Constitution never explicitly mandated economic or political rights for all. Throughout history people achieved their basic rights by relentless effort and at times mortal conflict.

The doctrinal system choreographed by political and economic elites hoodwinked about 30% of adults into believing a willfully ignorant, narcissistic buffoon would protect their interests. Now combine these manufactured perceptions with the barbaric reality that this rich country has never afforded all people access to the power needed for real advancement.

Can a republican government be devised that could withstand the depredations of genuinely despotic leaders?

A toxic storm brews, into the cauldron mix a large economically vulnerable population, an unresponsive and corrupt political system, a carnival barking demagogue and the consequences are obvious.

Malevolent leaders and a malignancy in the system produces an authoritarianism that could metastasize into an American style fascism. In 1919 Irish poet W. B. Yeats, writing about their struggle for democracy against British imperialism, wrote:

This paper examines today’s struggle to defend democracy by exploring the existential war on the Constitution, in particular the legislative process, the heart and art of representative government.

The founders constructed a new form of government, one with appreciable democratic attributes albeit with limited public participation. Just ask the enslaved, women, Natives, and other assailed classes.

These men of “property and standing” curiously were interested in the vagaries of human nature, in particular virtue as it related to a new republican form of government. As such a dialectic was formulated about the role of morality in the public sphere—the government and the private sphere—citizens.

To account for human nature, the founders felt virtuous leaders would be needed to influence and guide citizens thereby ensuring a virtuous society. James Madison said as much in Federalist No.10 and No. 57, “sufficient virtue among men for self government… can restrain them from destroying and devouring one another.” He continued, a constitution requires rulers who possess “wisdom and virtue to pursue the common good…”

This brings us to what this writer calls “Madison’s Nightmare”; can a republican government be devised that could withstand the depredations of genuinely despotic leaders? The founders were a nervous but optimistic bunch. They supported Benjamin Franklin’s plea at the end of the convention “to place trust in our own fallibility,” as such they ratified a constitution they believed would promote public and private virtue.

The Constitution was a pioneering and bold experiment especially in those dark days of monarchy, it was also plagued by undemocratic characteristics. Any fair appraisal recognizes its reliance on imperialism, slavery, the primacy of private property, sexism, racism, and classism.

Essential features lauded as Enlightenment constructs—the Social Contract, Popular Sovereignty, Separation of Powers, and Checks and Balances—have always been stronger in concept than reality. History has eroded and now with this coup is destroying these foundational principles.

The Social Contract Is in Default: The founder’s theorist, John Locke, devised a deal: The government would provide order and security in exchange for citizen loyalty and compliance. This contract is in default as the government can not or will not provide the security of opportunity for citizen development.

Today the people’s grievances are with a political economy that serves elite interests first and foremost, and with an oligarch masquerading as a champion of the people and democracy.

Sovereignty Isn’t So Popular: Consent of the governed is no longer required. There is a crucial disconnect between what citizens need and what the government is willing to provide. Basic needs go unsatisfied—health, housing, employment, environmental protection, and civil rights.

Powers Are No Longer Separated: The corporate and political state are joined at the wallet by mutual interests. Do not the wealthy elites have a louder political voice to determine polices in each branch and don’t these interlocking interests blunt the independence of each branch?

Checks Don’t Balance: The rule of law is flaunted with galling impunity. Congressional oversight, funding control, advice and consent, and oversight are seriously compromised or outright ignored.

The coup reveals systemic vulnerabilities. Listen to renowned conservative legal lion, retired federal Appellate Judge J. Michael Luttig, decry the “end of the rule of law” and how the Constitution “never contemplated and therefore, didn’t ever provide for a process… to withstand an attack from within” (“Judge Warns… Peril,” Michigan Law School, U of Michigan, 9/28/25)

So Madison’s nightmare haunts us.

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson enumerated a “long train of abuses,” 28 specific grievances against King George. Today the people’s grievances are with a political economy that serves elite interests first and foremost, and with an oligarch masquerading as a champion of the people and democracy.

As Noam Chomsky reminds us, Adam Smith in his 1776 study, The Wealth of Nations, warned about the “masters of the universe,” the elite corporate class who naturally align with the political elite to run a country. They hold to a “vile maxim” that states “all for ourselves and nothing for other people.”

Today in our country the vile maxim manifests itself in warped budget priorities that give record tax breaks to the rich while ignoring basic human needs. Since the 1980s there has been a $50 trillion transfer of wealth from the bottom 90% to the top 1%(Price and........

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