Dec. 8, 2025 Editor, The News-Gazette: There are those for whom our Democracy is too slow and cumbersome. They would like to see the president make the decisions, with Congress and the courts in supportive positions. Decisions could be made and direction determined with greater alacrity and assurance.
But our democracy is different, built on a historically new, even courageous premise: that all men and women are created equal. This means we believe that 51% of the people who vote for our leaders can be expected to make the correct, moral decisions — and that, if we make a mistake, we would correct it, slowly but surely.
Well, we made a mistake in voting for Donald Trump, who has made serious and dangerous decisions and chosen dangerously inept people to serve us. We are beginning to realize our mistake, and we are in the process of correcting it, as protests and polls and elections are showing.
More importantly, we have proven beyond any possible doubt that autocracy is a very poor choice for a country as large, rich, and complex as ours! OK, we’ve had a try with autocracy, and we’ve cried out “No Kings!”
Autocracy — whether monarchy, oligarchy, or kleptocracy — is not an acceptable form of government for us. We learned that lesson in 1776, and we have just had a strong reminder of the great wisdom that lives in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
R. JOHN BLACKLEY Lexington
