Steev Lynn is an international development professional who raised kids in Brattleboro and now lives in Dummerston, having worked for years in Africa and Asia on economic-livelihood issues.
DUMMERSTON-This July 4 was supposed to be a celebration that America's experiment with popular rule has lasted a quarter millennium. I'm just not sure it has.
When you consider what was unique about the republic established by our founding fathers in the late 1700s, its chief attributes were government of the people, by the people, and for the people; rule of law rather than of men (persons); and separation of powers to prevent tyranny.
For these advantages, the 13 original states put aside their differences of size, wealth, and economic structure - and, of course, their opinions about slavery. These principles were the reason to separate from England and to unite as a new country.
Now look at what's happened, starting with the rule of law: In America, that starts with the Constitution. It may not be perfect, but everyone agreed that it was the law of the land, as clarified by the Supreme Court.
But we have a president who thinks he can use executive orders to overrule parts of the Constitution he doesn't like. The intended safeguard, the Supreme Court, is failing in its purpose by enabling so many of these violations. Effectively, the Constitution is being nullified.
How about the separation of powers to prevent tyranny? The judicial branch of government, namely the Supreme Court, has become a rubber stamp for some clearly unconstitutional policies, even coming perilously close to overturning birthright citizenship as granted in the 14th Amendment. The Republican-led Congress as well, ruled by a party under the heavy personal influence of the president, just rubber-stamps whatever he says.
So neither the judicial nor the legislative branches of government serves as checks and balances on the executive. And the executive branch is headed by a person who expects every decision of his to be enacted without opposition - the very definition of a tyrant.
In fact, this tyrant threatens opponents with specious investigations, costly lawsuits, termination from positions of high responsibility, and thug-like verbal abuse. He aims to make opposition harder and harder.
* * *
What might save the country is government of the people, by the people, and for the people, which means elections - changing our leaders when we don't like them. That, too, is under threat - or, we should say, increased threat.
For decades now, the Republican party in states like Texas and Louisiana has been suppressing the vote by purging voter rolls, providing inadequate polling stations in certain areas, gerrymandering districts, and eliminating voting methods used heavily by its opponents such as mail-in ballots. Jailing Black men in large numbers and never letting them vote thereafter is part of that suppression strategy.
Now Trump threatens to upend elections completely by demanding passports or birth certificates on voting day - documents that many Americans can't easily get, especially those in lower economic brackets. You can just imagine administrators in red states dragging their feet or imposing high fees when providing these documents.
It is a blatant attempt to steal the 2026 midterm elections, which popular sentiment indicates that Republicans are likely to lose. This is made possible in part by a large plurality of Americans who no longer believe in elections unless their party wins, thus rendering democracy impossible. That's the effect of years of fake news, showing why fake news is incompatible with democracy. (Fake news has told them we never had a democracy.)
* * *
So if we are now without the rule of law, separation of powers, and government of the people, by the people, and for the people, what reasons remain for the United States to continue as a country?
Trump has won two out of the last three presidential elections. Anyone who thought Obama's election marked an end to white nationalism, xenophobia, and political hate was wrong. The people we have over the years called Confederates, segregationists, Tea Party, or MAGA are still with us, and likely always will be in the United States of America. And they don't want to share power - they want it all.
We celebrated the patriotic victory in the Civil War that held the country together, including the vanquished Confederates. Ah, but the Confederates weren't really defeated; they and their heirs lived to perpetrate Jim Crow laws, segregation, discrimination, and eventually Trump.
It is tempting to imagine the country split geographically into the majority MAGA/former Confederate belt and the progressive coasts and North. Without this region, the rest of us could have nice things like universal health care, rational gun laws, and limits on the power of billionaires. We may never have those things as the 50 states, but we might as the 20 or 30 states.
So now that the fireworks for America's 250th are over, it might be worth reflecting on what exactly has survived of our democracy - and what perhaps hasn't - as well as what we might want for ourselves and our descendants.
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 voices@commonsnews.org.