Last night, Rachel Maddow posted a clip of Justice David Souter, speaking at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord, New Hampshire four years ago, in which the retired Supreme Court justice warned that “what you should worry about at night” is not a foreign invasion or an internal coup, but pervasive civic ignorance that can give rise to an authoritarian coming to power. Maddow sees in Souter’s words the danger of Donald Trump as a national figure peddling civic ignorance.
Here are his remarks on the subject:
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Well, Augustus became emperor because he f**king obliterated Marc Antony, but whatever. It’s a foundational myth in America that the Roman Senate was this bastion of democracy that the people failed, as opposed to the isolated cabal of wealthy elites plundering the Republic for their own aggrandizement that it actually was. Augustus didn’t come in and con the people into voting for him by promising “I can do better,” he came in ahead of legions and then actually did it better.
So maybe that’s not the best analogy, but Justice Souter has a point that a better understanding of what competent democratic government looks like would provide a welcome bulwark against fascism. It’d certainly help more people see through the crap that politicians spout to justify a world of broken government. But it’s not prudent to always cast creeping authoritarianism as “the people” failing to do enough to understand the elites in office. Take a little responsibility for your own cohort, Mr. Supreme Court Justice! Third-grade civics lessons may teach reverence for the process of representative democracy, but they tend to gloss over the part where lobbyists pay off both sides of the debate. Perhaps the institutions need to expend more elbow grease getting back to the Schoolhouse Rock idyll.
That’s the lesson we should learn from Rome — institutions can fail the people just as much as the people can fail institutions. Oh, and don’t let kids named Caligula near the throne. We should learn that lesson too.
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Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.