Defending liberal democracy in an age of constant crisis
The first month of the new year has shaken American political and civic life. The immigration crackdown in Minneapolis that led to two deaths and thousands of arrests has sparked widespread public backlash. Degrading public discourse by our leaders and violence against lawmakers has become ubiquitous. The White House’s proposal to use “military options” to acquire Greenland has both Americans and our European allies on edge. President Trump’s overreach in attacking Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, coupled with his recent call to nationalize elections has only fueled American’s distrust in our institutions.
Each of these incidents could be viewed in isolation as discrete policy disputes or passing political storms. But beneath them lies something more fundamental that demands our collective attention. Despite the heated debates on social media and angry showdowns on cable news, not one of these political or policy outcomes matters if we cannot first defend the core tenets of democratic liberalism itself: individual liberty, constitutionally limited government, equality under the law, and a free and open society.
These are not simply talking points; rather, they are the first principles of American democracy, and they require unflinching protection. These values are what make self-government possible. They establish that power flows upward from the consent of the governed, not downward from the authority of rulers. They ensure bad policies can be contested and injustices can be exposed through debate rather than force. They transform society from a zero-sum game into one of coexistence. And ultimately they secure a form of freedom found nowhere else in the world.
Still, in the face of what feels like constant crisis, many Americans today are feeling exhausted, and the impulse to brush aside fundamental tenets in favor of immediate solutions to contentious policy disputes or political fights is real. But these principles matter precisely because the world is changing rapidly. New technologies, communications methods, political and cultural shifts are reshaping democratic life.
Elections and civic engagement look different than they did a generation ago. The workforce and the nature of work continue to transform. How we move, communicate and organize is shifting in ways we can barely anticipate. The political and policy fault lines are shifting. Long-standing alliances are fracturing.
This pace of change is mind bending, but it’s also necessary. A dynamic society must adapt. But adaptation is not the same as abandonment. And in this moment of uncertainty, the temptation to stray from our core principles is even more formidable: to trade principles for power, to abandon values for political advantage, to embrace opportunity over conviction.
And yet what so many don’t realize is that it is entirely possible — in fact, essential — to defend our founding principles while opposing specific policies or tactics that violate them. We have a cohesive vision of American liberal democracy laid out for us and enshrined in our Constitution, giving our nation direction and purpose. What we need from political and civic leaders today is not experimentation with first principles, but a recommitment to them, so that we can strategically adjust to changing times, guided by enduring values, rather than lurching reactively from crisis to crisis. A constitutional framework doesn’t constrain progress; it enables our republic to evolve and thrive.
The incidents that opened this year — immigration enforcement that turned deadly, degraded discourse from our leaders, threats to independent institutions like the Federal Reserve or even the happenings at the Kennedy Center — are not disconnected, isolated events. They are symptoms of what happens when we treat our founding principles as negotiable. Each incident represents a test: Will we protect individual liberty even when it risks political blowback? Will we constrain executive power even when we might agree with its aims? Will we defend institutional independence even when it’s inconvenient?
Many Americans are rightly distrustful of institutions that seem unable to deliver results, frustrated with a political class that appears disconnected from their daily struggles, and unsettled by a pace of change that feels overwhelming. This unease is understandable. But the answer is neither nostalgia for an imagined golden age nor the abandonment of liberal democracy itself. The response is recommitting to our foundational values and doing the hard work to ensure our leaders and institutions live up to them.
The day-to-day work of policymaking and reform will never go away. But we must do that work in service of something larger: a vision of American democracy that protects individual rights, constrains arbitrary power, treats citizens equally and fairly, and remains open to new ideas and diverse voices. These principles are not preferences to be traded away when politically convenient. They are the only thing standing between us and chaos.