Recommendations of the Editorial team
This is a deep cut. There is a solo track by John Lennon called “Remember” from the album Plastic Ono Band. It ends with the cry: “Remember the 5th of November!” (Remember November 5th!), followed by an explosion.
It was a reference to Guy Fawkes Day, which commemorates an infamous plot to blow up the British Parliament in 1605. An attempt that ended with the perpetrator’s head being impaled on a stake.
But after last year’s presidential election, that phrase took on a different meaning. On November 5, 2024, America rewarded a man who attempted to disrupt our system of government by spreading election lies that led to an attack on our capital.
From a historical perspective, this seems like an act of national self-destruction. That’s exactly why we have to be firefighters instead of arsonists to counteract the consequences.
American democracy under scrutiny
American democracy is a special case. It is the world’s oldest major democracy and the first nation founded on an idea – not a tribal identity. We have always been imperfect people working to create a more perfect union.
At the heart of this ideal was Abraham Lincoln’s admonition that “right makes might.” The sentence is so simple that we often overlook its revolutionary meaning: that the law of the jungle can be replaced by the rule of law in a civilized society.
At its core, Trumpism is the belief that might makes right. Money and influence are his currency, not the principle of treating others the way you would like to be treated yourself. For his followers, this is intoxicating. It reinforces their worst impulses. The long-suppressed law of the jungle, which seemed tamed by the liberal order, is now unleashed.
The warnings were there
We can’t say we weren’t warned. The New York Times opinion page aptly wrote before the 2024 elections:
“Donald Trump says he will prosecute his enemies, order mass deportations, use soldiers against citizens, abandon allies and play politics with disasters. Believe him.”
All of this happened. Trump voters may have believed they were voting for a lower cost of living, less national debt, or against identity politics that seemed to them an attack on common sense. Instead, they got tariffs, unprecedented corruption and an attack on the Constitution – while debts and prices continue to rise and long-time allies turn to China for trade.
The joy of the autocrats
No one is happier about this than authoritarian leaders around the world. They always saw liberal democracy as an intolerable hypocrisy. Now they have an American president who thinks the same way they do – who believes that the ends always justify the means. This shows that we are subject to the same forces of fear and greed that have brought demagogues to power throughout history. Trump has succeeded in what they were denied: discrediting the idea of American exceptionalism in the eyes of the world.
America became great because it chose, however imperfectly, law over might. Our Constitution, our commitment to democratic ideals, free markets and free people make us exceptional. Abandoning these principles does not restore greatness – it accelerates decline.
The danger of backlash
This is where the greater danger lies. Resisting the political temptation to pursue an equal and opposite response will be difficult. There is undoubtedly a need to reverse the excesses of the Trump administration. But decisive action must be taken in the future to rebuild the damaged guardrails of democracy.
A positive resistance
The answer must be positive, patriotic and inclusive resistance. He will restore the center of our politics and economy, promote market-based solutions to the affordability crisis, and advance immigration reform, secure borders, facilitate legal immigration, and renew the value of assimilation.
He will expand civic education and develop a new vision of national service. There is also a need for reforms that limit the power of the executive branch, as well as a federal solution to the escalating conflicts over redistricting, which were accelerated by Trump and have drastically reduced the number of redistricting districts.
So yeah – remember November 5th. Respond not with exhaustion or despair, but with a clear determination to rescue something valuable from the rubble. Because the right response to November 5th is a rebellious focus on the true meaning of July 4th – a rejection of the rule of kings that brought generations of freedom-loving immigrants, including John Lennon, here in the first place.