Recent United States history: In their own words

Many concerned citizens are asking themselves this pressing question: How have we come to this point in U.S. history where we are reversing prior progress in civil rights, dismantling vital federal agencies, attacking esteemed universities and their faculty, and embracing an Imperial Presidency?

In fact, these events haven’t suddenly and inexplicably arisen. There are many times across several decades — and vivid personal proclamations — that help explain the origin and evolution of these unsettling trends.

Civil Rights: Since Reconstruction, fulfillment of the American dream has yet to be attained. What is the obstacle?

In 1957, conservative writer and political commentator William F. Buckley Jr. opined that: “It is not easy, and it is unpleasant, to adduce statistics evidencing the cultural superiority of white over Negro: but it is a fact that … cannot be hidden by … egalitarians and anthropologists.”

In 1960, Sen. Lyndon Johnson sharply commented that: “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”

In 1963, President John Kennedy addressed the struggle to grant civil rights for all Americans: “If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public, if he cannot send his children to the best public school available, if he cannot vote for the public officials who represent him, then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place?”

In 1964, after signing the Civil Rights Act, President Johnson is claimed to have said that the Democratic Party may “have lost the South for a generation.”

Governmental Authority: Balancing the power of the States and the Federal government has been ever changing since the founding of the nation. What prevents the issue being resolved?

In his 1981 Inaugural Address, President Ronald Reagan contended that: “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” In 1986, he added that: “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.”

In 2001, Grover Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform remarked: “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”

In 2023, co-author of Project 2025 and President Donald Trump’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, said of career government employees: “We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them not to want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want to put them in trauma.”

In 2025, Elon Musk, creator of Trump’s Department of Governmental Efficiency shouted: “This is the chain saw for bureaucracy!”

Distrust of Higher Education Expertise: Why has one of the most successful of all institutions come under withering attack?

In 1961, Buckley asserted: “I would sooner be governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than by the two thousand members of the faculty of Harvard.”

In 1972, President Richard Nixon proclaimed: “The professors are the enemy.”

In 2021, Sen. JD Vance asserted, “if any of us want to do the things that we want to do for our country … we have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities.”

Presidential Power: The American Revolution overthrew kingly reign. Why are so many now choosing strongman rule over democracy?

In 1964, Arizona senator and presidential nominee Barry Goldwater remarked: “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice … and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!”

In 1977, after resigning the presidency amid the Watergate affair, Nixon insisted that: “When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.”

In 2017, former Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake issued this challenge to his Republican colleagues, “Presidential power should be questioned, continually. That’s what our system of government, defined by the separation of powers, is all about.”

In 2025, echoing Napoleon Bonaparte, President Donald Trump insisted: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” And, when later asked if a President needs to uphold the Constitution, Trump replied: “I don’t know.”

I’ve saved three quotations to close. They underscore the urgency and peril we face today:

Writer and journalist Norman Mailer warned us in 1963 that our democracy lacked firm guardrails against abuse. “A modern democracy is a tyranny whose borders are undefined; one discovers how far one can go only by traveling in a straight line until one is stopped.” In 2003, Mailer added that: “Democracy is a state of grace that is attained only by those countries who have a host of individuals not only ready to enjoy freedom but to undergo the heavy labor of maintaining it.”

Forcefully countering the growing threat is Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker in his 2025 State of the State Address: “Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So, gather your justice and humanity … and do not let the tragic spirit of despair overcome us when our country needs us the most.”

The time is now to begin the heavy labor to guarantee that democratic principles are not further eroded by the rapidly rising forces of authoritarianism.

Edward A. Wasserman lives in Iowa City.