7 hours Ago By Joe Mathews
The American democratic republic, a modest British colony that became the world’s richest country and greatest military power, has died.It was 236 years old.No official announcement was made of the end of the republic, first launched in 1789.
No autopsy was scheduled. The proximate cause of death was America’s rapid decline in democratic governance.The American democratic republic is survived by a country of the same name, the United States of America, now a presidential dictatorship.
Ending the democratic republic was an explicit goal of U.S. dictator, Donald Trump.
After the 2020 election, he led a failed coup against the republic. In 2024, as a candidate, he pledged to “terminate” the constitution, and declared that, in a second term, he would govern as a dictator.Trump’s assertion of dictatorial power — and widespread acceptance of such power across American society — fatally broke the republic’s structure.
From the beginning, the U.S. Constitution, a pre-modern document, was deeply flawed.
It originally permitted slavery, an error rectified only after generations of bondage and a bloody civil war.Yet the republic endured because of its central organizing principle: the separation of powers. No one person could dominate the United States — because it was a republic consisting of three co-equal branches of government: the legislative, executive and judiciary.
But over time, the executive branch grew exceedingly powerful. Two world wars emphasized the president’s commander-in-chief role, removing constraints on his power. In the 20th century, the republic was routinely fighting wars without the Congress declaring war.
With Congress often paralyzed by political conflict, presidents increasingly governed by executive orders.Upon retaking office in January, Trump quickly removed limits on his power. Using a billionaire tech oligarch, he seized control over independent agencies, dismantled whole departments, and fired or removed tens of thousands of government workers.
Trump didn’t stop with his own branch.He also attacked Congress’s foremost power — to appropriate funds — by breaking law, constitution, and court precedent that said the executive must spend what Congress appropriates. And he made war on the courts that make up the judicial branch, defying rulings and threatening those judges who tried to stop his lawbreaking.
“He who saves the country does not break the law,” Trump maintained.Following that mantra, Trump, himself a convicted felon, governed in way that drew comparisons to the Mafia. The American government’s main tool became extortion.
It routinely threatened other governments — both overseas and within the U.S. — with financial ruin if they did not bend to Trump’s will.
The government used similar threats against civil society institutions — universities, nonprofits, media — and against some private companies, notably law firms. Those institutions that fought back by asserting their constitutional rights learned quickly that the government no longer recognized those rights.Related ArticlesLetters: Research funding should not be a cudgel for TrumpLetters: California must stand up for higher educationBay Area-led lawsuit wins preliminary injunction against Trump’s attempt to freeze federal funds to “sanctuary” jurisdictionsDocumentary examines debate around vaccines amid growing politicizationBay Area cuisine thrives on global flavors.
Trump’s trade war puts that at risk.Congress was unwilling to defend such institutions, or its own power. Ironically, the highest court of the judicial branch, the U.
S. Supreme Court, sanctioned Trump’s lawlessness even before he took office, with a 2024 decision putting the president explicitly above the law, and immune from criminal punishment for official actions.By embracing that court-sanctioned dictatorial power, Trump ended the republic.
Few Americans were aware of the republic’s death. Confusion and fear of violence reigned among those who recognized the loss. Some opposition figures pointed to future elections as a way to overturn the dictatorship, but the Trump regime had previously issued edicts that would make elections unfair and unfree.
A few voices called not for saving the old republic, but rather for designing a new American governing system. California seemed likely to be the center of any effort. The dean of the University of California Berkeley School of Law, Erwin Chemerinsky, published a book, No Democracy Lasts Forever, calling for a convention to write a new constitution.
Funeral services for that first constitution, and the country it made, are pending.In lieu of flowers, Americans can honor the deceased by creating a new republic.Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zócalo Public Square.
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