For better and worse (mostly worse), Donald Trump was undoubtedly 2016’s person of the year. For better or worse (almost entirely for the better), 2017’s person of the year has to be Publius.
Not Publius Valerius Publicola, founder of the Roman republic (fine fellow though he undoubtedly was). Not Publius Decius Mus, devoted Roman warrior though he undoubtedly was. And not the author using the pseudonym Publius Decius Mus, who wrote in September 2016 what Tom Nichols called “the drama queen opus about the Flight 93 election” (rationalizer of demagoguery though he undoubtedly was).
No, we’re thinking of the pseudonymous Publius who wrote the Federalist Papers in 1787-1788—the trio of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. They had a good year in 2017. They were needed. Our politics in 2017 strained the constitutional and institutional structure they and the other founders designed. But the founders prevailed. The Constitution and its institutions, and the norms and mores that have grown up around them, did their job.
It wasn’t easy. 2017 was a year in which American politics vindicated Publius’s prediction that “enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.” It was a year that demonstrated in spades Publius’s judgment that “So numerous indeed and so powerful are the causes which serve to give a false bias to the judgment, that we, upon many occasions, see wise and good men on the wrong as well as on the right side of questions of the first magnitude to society.” And it was a year in which Publius’s prediction of what would happen in 1787 was repeated, 230 years later: “A torrent of angry and malignant passions will be let loose. To judge from the conduct of the opposite parties, we shall be led to conclude that they will mutually hope to evince the justness of their opinions, and to increase the number of their converts by the loudness of their declamations and the bitterness of their invectives.”
But in the midst of these passions and declamations and invectives, one set of institutions has stood tall: those created by, derived from, and fostered by the Constitution of the United States. The separation of powers, the independence of the courts, the rule of law, federalism, limits on government power, an independent private sector and a vigorous civil society, basic freedoms of speech and assembly—these have survived the rocky seas of 2017, despite having at the helm of the American ship a captain who is careless of its well-being and reckless in its piloting.
The survival of that ship, the fact that it remains seaworthy and even in some instances is moving in the right direction, is a tribute to many individuals, but to Publius above all. He and his colleagues built well. They knew that “If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.” And they knew that “A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.”
Those precautions have proven their worth. Embodied in institutions, they have kept the ship of state afloat. Expressed as norms of behavior, they have suffered some erosion but remain living traditions to which we can appeal. At its very founding, Publius made the case for revering the Constitution, and he explained how the structure of government might make it possible that “the most rational government will not find it a superfluous advantage to have the prejudices of the community on its side.” Some of those prejudices, what one might call the healthy prejudices of freedom that support civility and self-government, showed their vigor in 2017. We will continue to depend on them in 2018.
But obviously we can’t merely depend on them. The fate of America is in our hands. And so, as we move forward into 2018, the work of trying to save Republicanism from collapse into Trumpism (if possible) continues. The task of distinguishing a liberty-loving conservatism from an authoritarian populism remains urgent. The necessity of strengthening rather than damaging the guardrails of our constitutional democracy stands before us as much today as ever.
These questions need to be addressed directly and forcefully, but, one also hopes, as much as possible, in a spirit sine ira et studio. Still, there is no point pulling punches. On the fundamental question of Donald J. Trump’s fitness for office, my judgment remains in 2018 what it has been from the beginning. And so some of us will continue to do our best, such as it is, in the spirit of Publius:
“I affect not reserves which I do not feel. I will not amuse you with an appearance of deliberation when I have decided. I frankly acknowledge to you my convictions, and I will freely lay before you the reasons on which they are founded. The consciousness of good intentions disdains ambiguity. . . . My arguments will be open to all and may be judged of by all. They shall at least be offered in a spirit which will not disgrace the cause of truth.”
