Sunday, August 31, 2025
Seven Months In, Forty-One Months to Go
A nation can only look away for so long. For seven months we have endured a growing assault on America. Our values, our ideals our form of Government are being overturned. This is an assault the majority of Americans do not support. This assault has escalated to where there are military forces enforcing the law and, more likely, enforcing the will of one man.
What began as isolated crackdowns in Los Angeles—where state and local officials insisted their police had matters under control—has now spread into a troubling national pattern. President Trump has increasingly turned to military force, deploying National Guard units and even Marines under the banner of “emergency,” often without justification or respect for constitutional limits.
If California could be dismissed as “just California,” Washington, D.C. was another matter entirely. There were no riots in the capital—only homeless encampments along routes the President drives to his golf course. Yet Trump declared a “State of Emergency,” sending armed troops into city streets. Now he threatens similar deployments in Chicago and New York. Resistance from state governments is building, and clashes appear inevitable.
Meanwhile, ICE continues aggressive tactics—arresting day laborers in Home Depot parking lots, deporting children, and ignoring court orders. Congress remains paralyzed. Executive orders stretch constitutional boundaries. Courts struggle to respond. For Americans who still believe in individual rights, the Constitution, and the rule of law, these are dark times indeed.
Americans Know We Are on the Wrong Path
Recent polling makes clear that the public senses danger:
- Reuters/Ipsos (mid-August): Trump’s approval stands at 40%, tying the lowest of his current term. Hispanic support lags at 32%, and only 42% approve of his handling of crime and 43% of immigration.
- Gallup (August 1–20): Overall job approval is stable at 40%—steady from prior months. Economy approval is slightly lower at 37%, and foreign affairs at 39%.
- Pew Research (mid-August): Approval has dipped to 38%, down from 41% two months earlier. Disapproval is at 60%. Among his 2024 voters, support remains high but has slipped slightly from 95% at the start of his term to 85% now.
- Newsweek Tracker: Net approval is at ‑11 points, with 43% approving and 54% disapproving.
- Independents are turning sharply against him: approval among this group has fallen to the low-to-mid 40s overall, with just 29% approving in a Gallup July poll—a 17-point drop since January.
- On key policy areas like tariffs, 61% of Americans disapprove, and bipartisan frustration is growing, especially where cost-of-living concerns persist.
- Independents’ net approval of Trump is down to ‑29%, compared to just ‑3% at the start of his term. Analysts warn this could jeopardize the GOP’s House majority in 2026.
- A Quinnipiac poll shows 56% oppose his deployment of National Guard troops in D.C., including 61% of independents and 93% of Democrats. Overall approval dips to 37%.
Americans have a keen sense of right and wrong. We have an ingrained sense of justice. We know times are dark for many, many Americans. What we don’t know or, at least, haven’t figured out is how to fix it.
People have started to think about the future. A consensus is beginning to build that we will not be able to go back. Things are never going be the same. If this is the case. Then what does the future of our government look like? The best and most coherent plans I have seen are brought to us by Secretary Pete Buttigieg. What follows are a compendium of his ideas for us to ponder.
A Window Toward Tomorrow: Reform, Not Restoration
If America is to pull back from this brink, we cannot simply restore government to its pre-Trump condition. As Secretary Pete Buttigieg recently argued, the status quo wasn’t working. His call is not for nostalgia but for reinvention.
- In a July 28, 2025 NPR interview, Buttigieg argued Democrats shouldn’t try to put government back the way it was pre-Trump. He says the status quo “wasn’t working” and calls for redesigning institutions to rebuild public trust. He frames this as a populist stance that holds both government and big corporations to account.
- It’s wrong to “burn down” agencies (e.g., Education, USAID), but also wrong to pretend they were fine in 2024; instead, reimagine how they work rather than “taping the pieces together” after the fact.
- “An agenda for government reform should accompany any agenda for rebuilding government” to avoid a false choice between too much and too little government.
- Democratic system reforms.
- Abolish the Electoral College (move to the national popular vote). He’s said “Absolutely. It’s got to go.” (2019).
- Statehood for D.C. (and Puerto Rico if residents choose it). He folded D.C. statehood into his 2019 “black empowerment” plan and spoke about it on the trail.
- End partisan gerrymandering via independent redistricting commissions; strengthen voting access (automatic/same-day/online registration, early/mail voting, holiday for Election Day), and ensure accessible, well-resourced election administration.
- Money-in-politics: public financing with small-donor matching, stronger FEC, overturn Citizens United (and Buckley v. Valeo). (Advocacy summary; his 2019 pledge to reject lobbyist/corporate PAC $$ underscored the theme.)
- Supreme Court reform
- He popularized an academic depoliticization concept: expand the Court to 15 justices, where 10 are appointed in the usual partisan way and the remaining five are selected only with unanimous agreement of the other 10—intended to blunt pure partisan control. He also expressed openness to term limits.
- Civic Trust through national service
- In 2019 he proposed “A New Call to Service”: scaling national service (AmeriCorps/Peace Corps + new Climate Corps, Community Health Corps, Intergenerational Service Corps) to 1 million members by 2026—explicitly framed to rebuild social trust across differences.
Why Not Now?
These ideas are action-oriented and forward-looking. They strike directly at the roots of the dysfunction on display today. Yet our Democratic Party leadership too often seems content with short-term messaging wars and half-measures. If we are serious about protecting democracy, then boldness is not optional—it is essential.
A Closing Reflection
We don’t need Washington restored to what it was. We need Washington rebuilt to what it was meant to be. Sadly, we have much to go through, internal strife, conflict and bloodshed are in our future. However, I believe we will come to a time where our Nation rebuilds. Now is the time to think through what we believe a better American government will look like. Frankly, it is time for our leaders to begin to talk about what they think the future will look like.
The founders left us a framework to use to rebuild our Nation. The Preamble to the Declaration of Independence contains the deep-rooted soul of America. Reflect on these words and absorb their meaning, because this is the heart of the Nation we enjoyed until today. While we may not be ready to answer the call to revolution, events have a way of overtaking us. I leave you with their words:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Stephen J. Harshman is a Progressive political activist. Currently, Chair of The Apache Junction Democrats. The views expressed are his own, not authorized by any political party or candidate and do not reflect the views of The Apache Junction Democrats.