The present holds the largest concentration of democracies in human history. Wherever civilization develops, humanity’s leaders made themselves out to be the bearers of God’s will on Earth. Though some civilizations practiced democratic principles, most saw regular people as property of a king. This led to millennia of servitude, atrocity, and exploitation of people by their leaders. There is much to pine for, but we have a great foundation to start.

Western Democracy began in Athens over 2000 years ago. Reforms were made to include the wealthy and well connected in the decision making process. However, these reforms did not last long. The desire for a singular ruler, ordained by Zeus, continued to plague Greek city states till the Romans established democratic norms centuries later. When the Roman Republic collapsed Europe entered the Dark Ages and the advancements lost were preserved by Arabs until the Renaissance.

When the Roman Empire fell, the Ether of antiquity vanished from Europe. This was the Dark Ages. The novel ideas of self determination and civil liberty were replaced by the divine right of kings even Roman Emperors didn’t attempt. When the Ether reentered Europe after the Crusades, the Renaissance began and challenged the right of kings. Europe grew and amassed the strength to grow the Ether again. The Enlightenment swept through Europe and Modernity was born.

The Enlightenment birthed the ideas we now know as “American Values.” Freedom of press, capitalism, Liberalism, democracy. The American and French Revolution happened on the heels of a 2000 year journey. What the American Revolution represents is more than white men declaring their freedom, it is the culmination and manifestation of the Ether. What began in the mountains of Greece traveled around the world and landed in Philadelphia. Yet again, the world was yet again never the same.

Consent of the Governed is foundational to Modernity. The idea that we agree to the government's authority by virtue of our delegation is true in the abstract but rarely practiced. Modernity and the United States founded itself while reigning terror upon the world. Consent was never asked of the governed then and fails to this day. Failure to atone for their original sin is why the Ether, Modernity, and the United States are on a collision course with failure.

Modernity is collapsing and it is evident in every facet of our life. Record low approval for the institutions Modernity created. Tyranny of the majority never materialized but the minority continues exercising unchecked power. Wealth inequality reaching record levels. Tribalism engulfing public discourse. Modernity was never intended to accommodate true pluralism, it was a mechanism to enrich all white men with the power of the Ether than was previously gatekept by the few.

Greek democratic reforms included property owners. Roman democratic reforms included property owners and input from the poor. Democracy in the United States began with property owners. It later removed property requirements. Then included Black men. Quickly reversed that through Jim Crow. Expanded to white women. Then grew to include everyone after the Civil Rights Era. The consequences of disenfranchisement did not dissipate with a right to vote. You can't win a game on Monopoly by joining after 100 rounds. If the game is life or death, the play will get ugly.

The New Deal gave rise to the Administrative State and ushered in 100 years of Congress delegating its authority to the president. This period cooled constitutional checks and balances by predelgating power and money to the executive to govern. Over time layer upon layer has been added with no clear intention of how each piece works together to advance policy. Leasing this authority to a single person is why the current administration's disastrous description of federal governing infrastructure is so effective: Congress never installed a fail safe.

When Congress created the Administrative State they unintentionally did two things: (1) placed the president a few steps from a king; and (2) became too comfortable with delegation. To create the administrative state, Congress passes organic statutes that lay out how the executive is to perform functions constitutionally assigned to Congress. Once that power is delegated and becomes law, there is no way to claw it back. A president can then interpret that law as they see fit, even if the actions verge on criminality. Congress must give clear, concise, and nonrenewable power to the President to avoid an autocratic takeover.

If our democracy is at risk, which it is, there needs to be something other than business as usual being offered to save our system of government. Expanding voting rights, criminal trials, congressional investigations, and counterterrorism are all essential but do nothing to secure the institutional stability of our dying republic. If what proponents of democracy have shown thus far is the best they’ve got, they don’t got enough.

Saving our democracy requires reconfiguring the entire federal government. The kinds of policy we need include: a dedicated judicial hierarchy to quickly handle federal branch disputes; clawback power written into organic statutes; federal recall procedures; removing police power from the president; expanding the House of Representatives; establishing term limits on every office; democratizing the amicus curiae brief process; implementing a citizen vote system on certain legislation. And it doesn’t stop there. We cannot continue to run a government designed for 1940 in 2025.

Every elected member of the federal government should have a salary equal to the median income in the United States. Every federal campaign should be publicly funded. Campaign finance slush funds need to be closed. The revolving door must elicit severe penalties. Public office must return to a service to the public.

It should be incumbent upon our leaders to actually be in the streets they govern. Too often we hold congressional hearings about farms, but Congress never goes to the farms. We hold press conferences on funding battles, but rarely include the people affected in the briefings. We continue to make decisions that will impact billions of people without requiring even a second of presence anywhere but the federal buildings in Washington. The people deserve more.

As the government leaves the Beltway, it must take with it a commitment to address the core truth that the government was never designed to be run by, or even take note of, the vast number of people included in the democratic process today. We cannot continue building on top of a foundation engineered for a select few. We can see the battle playing out with minority rule seeking to forcefully establish its will on the majority. It will not end until we work in honesty.

Building a resilient democracy requires us to abandon the mistakes of those who came before. Ideology is a false game offered by people who know they lack the answers. Believing that a certain worldview will apply in every instance and always have beneficial results is a farce. Sometimes the government needs to be big, sometimes it needs to be small. Political absurdism is the framework we must apply. There is no “right way” to do anything, only what we allow. We must focus on finding the solutions by applying the correct ideologies in the correct instances, not blanket dogma.