There is a force undermining our republican form of government, and everybody senses it. The very idea of a government of laws, not of men, is challenged by it. This force is behind all those recent slumped-shouldered warnings that “we don’t want to become a banana republic,” where the winning party tries to imprison figures of the opposition. You can see the face of radio host Mark Levin, through the hole this force opens in our body politic, when he responded to the indictment of Donald Trump last week with a full-throated roar: “There is no law! What’s going on here is a disgusting disgrace. It is war on Trump. It is war on the Republican Party.”
The force acting on and sometimes against our republic is the spirit of democracy. It is a bone-deep belief that haunts us and drives a great deal of strange behavior. It’s behind the crazy talk of lawlessness, it’s behind Vivek Ramaswamy’s sweaty promise to pardon Trump. And it has led us to the current impasse in our politics.
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