A Clarion Call For Democracy

The conservative columnist Peggy Noonan wrote last week: “The president needs to be told: Democracy is not your plaything.” She is so right. Donald Trump has warmly welcomed despots to the White House, suggested that reporters who publish classified information should be jailed, and may have obstructed justice by firing the man leading the investigation into possible collusion between Trump and the government of Russia. The first four months of this presidency underscore the necessity of the checks and balances the Founders wrote into our Constitution and the importance of the institutions of democracy that have evolved over time.

Those checks have shifted into overdrive. Trump’s Muslim ban has been stopped while the courts consider its legality. The media are investigating and reporting matters of urgent public interest, in spite of Trump’s almost daily diatribes against the press. And the most important check—the will of the public—is evident in the activism Americans are displaying in protests, town halls and other forums from coast to coast.

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