Forgetting the Founding Fathers and the Best Parts of our History

Possibly the most tragic results of Trump and Musk’s treasonous actions over the last month is encouraging America’s people to forget about our beginnings. Our Founding Fathers were not perfect because no human being could ever achieve such a lofty goal. However, they were noble men who rejected tyranny and rule by a king and moved to the new land to create a new nation founded on individual freedom and human rights. Trump and Musk are attempting to eliminate these basic rights and shred the Constitution.

After a great victory in the Revolutionary War, a small number of men gathered in Pennsylvania to participate in the Constitutional Convention in 1787. There were only 55 men in attendance and only 39 added their names to the Constitution in 1789.

It is well-known by those of us who love history that these men were aware that what they had accomplished was far from perfect. They firmly believed that their successors would improve what they had begun. Among their mistakes were not establishing term limits for all three branches of our government, and their decision to allow the Electoral College to choose our presidents which nullifies millions of votes each year. Every vote does not count. Their assumption that good men would follow them proved that they never contemplated mankind’s greed and lust for power.

Just one week ago our government celebrated “Presidents Day.” 45 men, all white with the exception of President Obama, have held our nation’s highest office. Although Trump and Musk are undoubtedly the worst in history, few of our nation’s leaders deserved to be honored. Only a handful of our presidents could be called “great,” twice as many were very bad and even harmful to our nation’s future. Politicians will say and do anything to remain in power, and Trump is proof that power corrupts. He is now attempting to amass even greater power in direct opposition to the intent of our founding fathers.

Their creation of a Democratic Republic, with “three separate but equal branches,” intentionally gave the executive branch less power than the legislative and judicial. Their purpose was to prevent rule by a king or autocrat in the United States. A biased decision by a corrupted Supreme Court in 2024 granted Trump his demand. He is now more powerful than the legislative and judicial branches combined.

The final truth is that in 2025 the government of the United States is the most corrupt and most incompetent in the world.

We, the American people, need a complete “do-over.”

Op-ed by James Turnage

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