David Souter’s prescient remarks ring true, 12 years later

By Steve Benen

Retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter has maintained a very low public profile since stepping down from the high court in 2009, but as longtime readers might recall, he delivered some memorable remarks in New Hampshire in 2012 about his broader political fears.

“I think some of the aspects of current American government that people on both sides find frustrating are partly a function of the inability of people to understand how government can and should function,” Souter said. “It is a product of civic ignorance.”

After quoting Benjamin Franklin’s admonition about democracy struggling to survive “too much ignorance,” the retired justice added, “I don’t worry about our losing republican government in the United States because I’m afraid of a foreign invasion. I don’t worry about it because I think there is going to be a coup by the military as has happened in some of the places. What I worry about is that when problems are not addressed, people will not know who is responsible. And when the problems get bad enough ... some one person will come forward and say, ‘Give me total power and I will solve this problem.’ That is how the Roman republic fell.”

Souter concluded, “If we know who is responsible, I have enough faith in the American people to demand performance from those responsible. If we don’t know, we will stay away from the polls. We will not demand it. And the day will come when somebody will come forward, and we and the government will in effect say, ‘Take the ball and run with it. Do what you have to do.’ That is the way democracy dies. And if something is not done to improve the level of civic knowledge, that is what you should worry about at night.”

The retired justice’s unscripted comments came to mind when I saw The New York Times publish a post-election analysis with a headline that read, “America Hires a Strongman.” The analysis included a two-sentence paragraph that summarized a great deal succinctly:

This was a conquering of the nation not by force but with a permission slip. Now, America stands on the precipice of an authoritarian style of governance never before seen in its 248-year history.

The question isn’t whether Donald Trump ran an authoritarian platform. The Republican nominee for the nation’s highest office threatened perceived foes with prison sentences, explicitly endorsed a “strongman” leadership style, boasted about his support from dictators, raised the prospect of a temporary American “dictatorship,” and talked about “terminating” parts of the Constitution that stand in the way of his ambitions.

In case that weren’t quite enough, he also argued that his rivals shouldn’t be “allowed” to run against him, targeted immigrants with Hitler-style rhetoric while promising to create militarized mass deportations and detention camps, occasionally talked about deporting people who entered the United States legally, promised pardons to politically aligned criminals, raised the specter of military tribunals for his perceived domestic political foes, vowed crackdowns on the free press, and even talked about expanding the use of the U.S. military on American soil.

The question, rather, is why the electorate heard this message and elevated him to power anyway.

In the coming months and years, it’s likely that many voters will celebrate as Trump chips away at the rule of law and other democratic institutions. Other will see Trump implement elements of his authoritarian vision and effectively say, “Well, I didn’t vote for that. I was just annoyed about having to pay more for groceries after the pandemic.”

But by then, it will be too late.

Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MSNBC political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."