It has been a long night of terror for American pluralism and democracy. The Republican Party since 2016 has burrowed ever deeper into authoritarian terrain. You don’t have to be a political scientist to register that reality. Democratic political parties aren’t awash in lies, and they don’t nominate criminals and coup plotters to leadership. Not so complicated, really.
Trumpism is a daily assault on many targets, including basic decency. But among them is optimism. When lies are common currency, and democratic values and practices are under persistent assault, it’s easy to feel despondent about the future. That’s why talk of a “Fourth Founding” can be both a compelling exercise of imagination and a momentary balm for political anxiety.
The great American historian Eric Foner cast Reconstruction as the nation’s “Second Founding,” when the Constitution was remade after the Civil War to expand liberty to Black Americans. Others applied that template to the Civil Rights era. In burying Jim Crow and enshrining rights in the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, the U.S. finally realized democracy in the mid-1960s — the Third Founding.
Each of those breakthroughs was preceded by crisis — the Civil War in the 19th century and the Massive Resistance of white supremacists in the 20th century. Is it possible that the authoritarian crisis embodied by MAGA could ultimately trigger another breakthrough — a Fourth Founding?
“I think we have the opportunity to do that here, hopefully sooner rather than later,” said Ian Bassin, executive director of Protect Democracy. “Or at least we can if we do our part.”