As mentioned in my last post, I am still reading the Federalist Papers, and between the
arguments regarding the Federal Government’s power to raise an army to maintain
national defense, and its power to levy taxes, concurrent to the state powers,
the constant danger of the usurpation of the Republic by internal or external
influences continues to be a major theme.
 |
| I can't believe they wrote this is just six months. It's taking me longer than that just to read it. |
And at every turn, they pronounce Unity as the best defense
of liberty in the face of dictatorship. But along the way, they point out that the structure of our government provides a helping hand. “A dependence on the people is no doubt the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions." (Federalist 51)
On one level, the Federalist Papers can be read as a
historical view of an important moment in American history, perhaps THE most important in American
history, in that all other moments of history have followed this one. And if not for this one moment, no other
moments of American history would be possible, or even conceivable, including
the moment in history we are living right now, one of the most incredible
presidential elections that most of us have ever seen.
In fact, one could make an argument that we should be celebrating September 17th (the date of the signing of the Constitution) instead of
July 4th as the birthday of this country.
But, on the other hand, the Federalist Papers could (though probably shouldn’t) be read at least in part as a how-to manual for dismantling a republic. It was certainly never meant to be such a thing, but it makes an interesting exercise to see if the dangers that Madison and Hamilton and the other original framers foresaw have indeed stuck their ugly heads up out of the sand.
Now, I’m not saying outright that anyone currently running for president of the United States is definitely trying to force himself into an elected position with the aim of seizing the power of the Federal government for his own purposes, but if someone was trying to do that, this is what it might look like, according to history, which knows a few things about megalomaniacs seizing power.
1) Choose your moment:
You’ll need to pick the right time to seize
power. Typically, military coupes have
come at times of civil unrest and violence, demanding military intervention. More “democratic” coupes, where the future
dictator is elected by the voters often follow periods of economic strife, like
the Great Depression. Exploiting some
kind of internal strife requires that a) you wait for something terrible to
happen, or b) convince people that a previous crisis is still going on and you
can blame it on your current opponent, creating in the process "those violent and oppressive factions which embitter the blessings of liberty." (Federalist 45) For the framers, it was the poisonous, anti-Union political atmosphere following the successful revolution that posed the greatest danger.
But I suppose that the recovery period following a great financial crisis, coupled with racial tensions and on-going threats from terrorists groups would work just as well.
2) Find a scapegoat:
You’ll need to focus the anger of people who are upset about the direction of the country, now that you and your surrogates have succeeded in convincing them that the country is heading in the wrong direction (despite all evidence to the contrary). Historically, the best scapegoats are broadly defined minority groups that are perceived as somehow “different” from the majority of the country. Foreigners and religious minorities work well for this. Use every opportunity to use one or two examples as proof that everyone in these subcategories are threats either to our economy (the “They’re stealing our jobs” approach) or our security (the “They’re going to kill us all” approach). If you have trouble coming up with examples, truth is a fluid concept. Just lie. Say your lies loud enough and long enough, and everyone who wants to believe them will believe them.
3) Use propaganda effectively:
Of course, you standing there by yourself lying your butt off will only get you so far. You need an effectively propaganda machine. Since we conveniently have a free and open press, it shouldn’t be too hard to pull one or two of those media outlets into your camp and get them working for you.
This, too, goes right back to the founding of our country, with
newspapers openly taking sides between the Democratic Republicans of Thomas
Jefferson and James Madison and the Federalists of John Adams and Alexander
Hamilton, to the point that Adams passed the Alien and Sedition Acts with the
intent to lock up members of the press. In more recent times, the conservative press likewise played an important role in spreading
administration misinformation in the lead up to the Iraq war.
The really great part about how we use the media today is that your propaganda machine doesn’t really have to lie very hard. According to studies about our online reading habits, we almost never go further than sensationalistic headlines. We see a headline that matches with our predetermined way of thinking about the world (see above re: exploiting a sometimes-imaginative crisis and blaming it on foreigners) and quickly share it. All you need to do is recycle
However you manage it, your public image is essential. You have to make your image work for you, to appeal to the broadest base of your supporters. And further, you need to make sure your opponent's image appears untrustworthy, or corrupt, or criminal, or incompetent, even in the face of facts that clearly demonstrate to the contrary. "For it is a truth which the experience of all ages had attested, that the people are always most in danger when the means of injuring their rights are in the possession of those of whom they entertain the least suspicion." (Federalist 25)
4) Get elected:
Up to now, we’ve really only looked at practices that most politicians use in one form or another- appealing to special interests, blaming someone other than their supporters, distributing misinformation- but swaying a fickle public opinion and actually winning a majority of votes are two different animals. And even then, the majority of votes isn’t what counts in this country, thanks to the electoral college, specifically designed (for better or worse) as a further safeguard from popular opinion interjecting itself above the public interest. "This process of election affords a moral certainty, that the office of the president, will seldom fall to the lot of any man, who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications." (Federalist 68)
Clearly, their not talking about you.
In other words: you need to do something to guarantee that you win. And that means you need to guarantee votes. How? Voter fraud is possible, but tricky. Voter intimidation is way easier. Just ask your own supporters to stay at the polling stations, ostensibly to prevent cheating. But make sure they know that “cheating” means anyone who is not voting for you. After all, everyone must be voting for you, since you’re so great, so anyone expressing a different opinion is obviously a liar and cheater working for the other side. Poor logic? Perhaps, but I assume you’ve been using poor logic all along, so it won’t be any more noticeable now. This will help prevent anyone voting against you. Violence should be (subtly) encouraged, as violence is a strong deterrent to voting.
5) Suppress the opposition:
The beauty of our Constitutional system is how it provides a framework for bringing together different, often opposing ideas and allows for the possibility of compromise. Our system of government recognizes that there is a plurality of opinions within the electorate of our country and we owe that plurality a decent hearing as we consider what course to chart. As a result of this structure, the government will be full of people who disagree with you. These voices must be silenced. You like firing people, don't you? Fire them. Failing that, intimidate them until they are forced to resign. Fill every opening with people who agree with everything you say.
Your next challenge will be the fourth estate, the press, whose freedoms are designed to act as a counterbalance to any consolidation of power within the three branches of government. Fortunately for you, the press, as we’ve already seen, is lazy and malleable. But you can’t take the chance of some Woodward or Bernstein exposing your true intentions to the country and turning that ever-shifting public opinion against you. Instead, you need a press that will be loyal to you at all times and always say positive things to reinforce your image. So, if some journalist questions you too harshly, you must attack them back, criticize them and their work, punish whatever media outlet they work for by refusing to cooperate or allow them access, and whenever possible, try to solicit some surrogate to respond violently. Soon, you’ll find journalists as easy to control as any other group of people.
6) Consolidate your power:
And here is the final, perhaps most difficult step. The Constitution of the United States calls for specifically three separate but co-equal branches of government that are interrelated without the kind of crossover of power that allows easily for any one branch to become more powerful than the other two, or for any one person to gain too much influence over all three. This was designed by founders who well understood the desire of men to seek power. "If men were angels, no government would be necessary." (Federalist 51) Being no angel yourself, this is the challenge you’ll need to overcome.
As the Chief Executive, and as someone who has already purged his political enemies from the executive branch (see previous), you’ll enjoy all the power of the executive branch. But legislative powers will continue to fall to Congress, as well as budgetary powers, and the judicial branch still has the authority to declare anything you do unconstitutional and therefore void. These are serious threats to your newly acquired power.
In the first place, as being President in our modern sense is fundamentally different than it was originally envisioned, at a time before political parties, you will have a solid voting block in the legislature to work for you there. You’ll need to guard against those who choose not to follow your lead, but those can be handled with a combination of intimidation and monetary incentives. And when the legislature fails to do as you wish, you yourself will be able to legislate from your office using executive orders. While there are limits to the use of executive orders, just have a really good lawyer (I’ll assume you already have one) draft a memo explaining that whatever executive order you wish to make is legal under some vague language of the Constitution, and your order should go unchallenged. If it is challenged in the courts, you’ll need to ensure that courts declare in your favor.
For this, you’ll need to have influence over the Supreme Court, and that means appointing at least one justice (that lawyer I mentioned earlier would be a good first pick). It is therefore advisable to time your election/rise to power such that it coincides with vacancy on the court.
Once you have suitable influence over the courts, you will finally enjoy exactly the consolidation of power that the framers of the constitution feared and loathed. You'll have taken their principles of republicanism and turned our nation into something far removed, and far worse, than it was ever intended to be. And you managed to do it right under the nose of "the People." Well done!
But I suppose that the recovery period following a great financial crisis, coupled with racial tensions and on-going threats from terrorists groups would work just as well.
2) Find a scapegoat:
You’ll need to focus the anger of people who are upset about the direction of the country, now that you and your surrogates have succeeded in convincing them that the country is heading in the wrong direction (despite all evidence to the contrary). Historically, the best scapegoats are broadly defined minority groups that are perceived as somehow “different” from the majority of the country. Foreigners and religious minorities work well for this. Use every opportunity to use one or two examples as proof that everyone in these subcategories are threats either to our economy (the “They’re stealing our jobs” approach) or our security (the “They’re going to kill us all” approach). If you have trouble coming up with examples, truth is a fluid concept. Just lie. Say your lies loud enough and long enough, and everyone who wants to believe them will believe them.
3) Use propaganda effectively:
Of course, you standing there by yourself lying your butt off will only get you so far. You need an effectively propaganda machine. Since we conveniently have a free and open press, it shouldn’t be too hard to pull one or two of those media outlets into your camp and get them working for you.
 |
| Careful: This way madness lies. |
The really great part about how we use the media today is that your propaganda machine doesn’t really have to lie very hard. According to studies about our online reading habits, we almost never go further than sensationalistic headlines. We see a headline that matches with our predetermined way of thinking about the world (see above re: exploiting a sometimes-imaginative crisis and blaming it on foreigners) and quickly share it. All you need to do is recycle
However you manage it, your public image is essential. You have to make your image work for you, to appeal to the broadest base of your supporters. And further, you need to make sure your opponent's image appears untrustworthy, or corrupt, or criminal, or incompetent, even in the face of facts that clearly demonstrate to the contrary. "For it is a truth which the experience of all ages had attested, that the people are always most in danger when the means of injuring their rights are in the possession of those of whom they entertain the least suspicion." (Federalist 25)
4) Get elected:
Up to now, we’ve really only looked at practices that most politicians use in one form or another- appealing to special interests, blaming someone other than their supporters, distributing misinformation- but swaying a fickle public opinion and actually winning a majority of votes are two different animals. And even then, the majority of votes isn’t what counts in this country, thanks to the electoral college, specifically designed (for better or worse) as a further safeguard from popular opinion interjecting itself above the public interest. "This process of election affords a moral certainty, that the office of the president, will seldom fall to the lot of any man, who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications." (Federalist 68)
Clearly, their not talking about you.
In other words: you need to do something to guarantee that you win. And that means you need to guarantee votes. How? Voter fraud is possible, but tricky. Voter intimidation is way easier. Just ask your own supporters to stay at the polling stations, ostensibly to prevent cheating. But make sure they know that “cheating” means anyone who is not voting for you. After all, everyone must be voting for you, since you’re so great, so anyone expressing a different opinion is obviously a liar and cheater working for the other side. Poor logic? Perhaps, but I assume you’ve been using poor logic all along, so it won’t be any more noticeable now. This will help prevent anyone voting against you. Violence should be (subtly) encouraged, as violence is a strong deterrent to voting.
5) Suppress the opposition:
The beauty of our Constitutional system is how it provides a framework for bringing together different, often opposing ideas and allows for the possibility of compromise. Our system of government recognizes that there is a plurality of opinions within the electorate of our country and we owe that plurality a decent hearing as we consider what course to chart. As a result of this structure, the government will be full of people who disagree with you. These voices must be silenced. You like firing people, don't you? Fire them. Failing that, intimidate them until they are forced to resign. Fill every opening with people who agree with everything you say.
Your next challenge will be the fourth estate, the press, whose freedoms are designed to act as a counterbalance to any consolidation of power within the three branches of government. Fortunately for you, the press, as we’ve already seen, is lazy and malleable. But you can’t take the chance of some Woodward or Bernstein exposing your true intentions to the country and turning that ever-shifting public opinion against you. Instead, you need a press that will be loyal to you at all times and always say positive things to reinforce your image. So, if some journalist questions you too harshly, you must attack them back, criticize them and their work, punish whatever media outlet they work for by refusing to cooperate or allow them access, and whenever possible, try to solicit some surrogate to respond violently. Soon, you’ll find journalists as easy to control as any other group of people.
6) Consolidate your power:
And here is the final, perhaps most difficult step. The Constitution of the United States calls for specifically three separate but co-equal branches of government that are interrelated without the kind of crossover of power that allows easily for any one branch to become more powerful than the other two, or for any one person to gain too much influence over all three. This was designed by founders who well understood the desire of men to seek power. "If men were angels, no government would be necessary." (Federalist 51) Being no angel yourself, this is the challenge you’ll need to overcome.
As the Chief Executive, and as someone who has already purged his political enemies from the executive branch (see previous), you’ll enjoy all the power of the executive branch. But legislative powers will continue to fall to Congress, as well as budgetary powers, and the judicial branch still has the authority to declare anything you do unconstitutional and therefore void. These are serious threats to your newly acquired power.
In the first place, as being President in our modern sense is fundamentally different than it was originally envisioned, at a time before political parties, you will have a solid voting block in the legislature to work for you there. You’ll need to guard against those who choose not to follow your lead, but those can be handled with a combination of intimidation and monetary incentives. And when the legislature fails to do as you wish, you yourself will be able to legislate from your office using executive orders. While there are limits to the use of executive orders, just have a really good lawyer (I’ll assume you already have one) draft a memo explaining that whatever executive order you wish to make is legal under some vague language of the Constitution, and your order should go unchallenged. If it is challenged in the courts, you’ll need to ensure that courts declare in your favor.
For this, you’ll need to have influence over the Supreme Court, and that means appointing at least one justice (that lawyer I mentioned earlier would be a good first pick). It is therefore advisable to time your election/rise to power such that it coincides with vacancy on the court.
Once you have suitable influence over the courts, you will finally enjoy exactly the consolidation of power that the framers of the constitution feared and loathed. You'll have taken their principles of republicanism and turned our nation into something far removed, and far worse, than it was ever intended to be. And you managed to do it right under the nose of "the People." Well done!
And in the end, it won't be you that we have to blame for our predicament, but ourselves. Because what the Federalist Papers should teach us, and what all the original founders have tried to tell us, is that there is no secret weakness in our government, some Achilles Heel hidden in the Constitution like a Dan Brown novel.
Our government's greatest weakness comes in the form of us, the People. If we walk around blind to how special our government structure is, how great it can be in hands of dedicated public servants, working together, sometimes arguing, sometimes compromising, but always for the Public Interest, instead of their own personal interests, we won't deserve this government anymore. Our Constitution is still there, with all its flaws and contradictions, trying to create the best nation that it can for us.
And if we give up on that, if we see exactly what you're doing as you subvert every principle of our founders, and we see it and do nothing about it, then you'll win and we will deserve everything we get.
And I think we're better than that. I hope I'm not wrong.
Our government's greatest weakness comes in the form of us, the People. If we walk around blind to how special our government structure is, how great it can be in hands of dedicated public servants, working together, sometimes arguing, sometimes compromising, but always for the Public Interest, instead of their own personal interests, we won't deserve this government anymore. Our Constitution is still there, with all its flaws and contradictions, trying to create the best nation that it can for us.
And if we give up on that, if we see exactly what you're doing as you subvert every principle of our founders, and we see it and do nothing about it, then you'll win and we will deserve everything we get.
And I think we're better than that. I hope I'm not wrong.
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