Remember the toddler game “the Opposite,” “Simon Says” only in reverse? Tell me to sit, I stand, to cry, I laugh, etc.

That’s how the Nameless One governs. Peace is war, truth lies, freedom suppression, justice vengeance (or bribery), facts propaganda, poor rich, solvency insolvency, revenues tariffs, education confusion, health disease, profit loss, courage cowardice, and so forth leading dizzyingly to the big Opposite: Democracy is Tyranny, Patriotism Servitude, Life Death. He and his never mean what they say unless, by happy accident, the truth points in their desired direction, in which case, why not sprinkle their whoppers with occasional candor for flavoring. (Truth, to be truth, must be consistent, not just convenient.)

We wonder, aghast, why democracy’s institutions haven’t resisted this assault. Where are our heroes! We excoriate our pusillanimity, cynicism, ignorance, indifference…

Today’s Americans are despicable, no doubt, but are we worse than other tribes? Or after centuries of self-adulation are we waking to our oh-so-human mediocrity (speaking of “woke”)?

Democracy wasn’t built to play “the Opposite.” Democracy is predicated on the old Roman idea of Bona Fides, Good Faith. “Let those who are to preside over the state obey two precepts of Plato,” intoned Cicero (an inveterate intoner): “one, that they so watch for the well-being of their fellow-citizens that they have reference to it in whatever they do, forgetting their own private interests; the other, that they care for the whole body politic, and not, while they watch over a portion of it, neglect other portions. For, as the guardianship of a minor, so the administration of the state is to be conducted for the benefit, not of those to whom it is entrusted, but of those who are entrusted to their care.”

Our Founders, taking this precept for granted, failed to envision a scumbag like the Nameless One in our supreme office. The Nameless One and his enablers welcomed this naivete as permission. If Americans were stupid enough to permit playing the Opposite, what the hell, why not, let Avarice and Animus Thrive!

This gang is doing a good job destroying, credit where credit’s due. They’re clever at stabbing the baby in the cradle. They may even win the whole enchilada – for a while. But that won’t be forever. As Cicero and any sane observer realizes, power is an unsustainable basis for governance. The Big Guy falls, then comes the civil war to replace him on similar absolutist principles, and government must be born anew.

Present rhetoric about freedom, justice, democracy rings hollow in the face of American indifference to those values. Snoozy, lazy, overconfident we knew whom we were voting for. Sadly, we deserve what’s happening to us. It wasn’t them to blame for the Nameless One but we ourselves. Democracy brought about its ruin. If we’re going to rescue democracy from the ashes – the 2026 Midterms will be the decisive battle – we’ll have to repair it to make it functional.

How? That will be the result of a fraught conversation, as dicey and dissentious as the Constitutional Convention in 1787. I’m all for a government “of the people, by the people and for the people who care about America.” To vote you’ve got to participate in our great experiment, learn about it, invest some sweat, not just hijack our sweet success for a joyride. Save democracy by restricting the plebiscite. We license car drivers to avoid wrecks, why not the drivers of our state?

These debates anticipate a future that may never come. Right now we’ve got to upright our upside-side-down nation. Insist on Good Faith. Make America Great Again.