Back to Democracy Basics, Part III

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BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  SEPT 22, 2026

“No republic can survive when its citizens lose faith in their own ability to govern themselves and instead view citizenship as merely consuming services provided by someone else.”
— Richard Hines, writing in The Fulcrum, July 4, 2026

There’s truth in that.

American citizens have lost faith in their ability to govern because it seems they no longer know how to govern or simply no longer have the will to try. It’s understandable on both counts.
Citizens today can’t make themselves heard or expect responses.

Why? Because of the exasperating din of personal rancor, partisan warfare, righteous intransigence that permeates most aspects of governance, and the intense competition for lawmakers’ attention, much of it unfair.

There are many logical reasons for how we got to where we are and many more lame excuses for it. There’s plenty of blame to go around, too. But I believe at the bottom of it all is our abandonment of the core values underlying democratic republicanism that I’m examining in this series of columns.

Civics education is one of those core values that should never be trifled with. But it has been. The deterioration of civics and history education is shameful. Continue reading →

Back to Basics, Part II

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  AUG 11, 2026

Those of you who read Back to Basics Part 1 know that I opined that political dysfunction in our country has become so deeply embedded that even the historic celebration of the Declaration this year has not been able to dislodge it.

In a recent Gallop poll, poor leadership went toe-to-toe with the economy as the biggest problem facing the country. That’s rare.

Clearly politicians alone can’t dig us out of the dark hole we’re in, especially since some of them dug the hole in the first place and more of them have just kept digging.

It is up to us to change things, and really it always has been. Our form of government depends on us and while very little in our political life is simple, this precept is.

‘We the People’ created this Republic to empower the citizenry and we the people need to make sure it is preserved and protected for us and our offspring. Continue reading →

It’s Past Time to Go Back to Basics

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  JUL 31, 2026

Normally, important anniversaries such as the Fourth of July, or national crises such as 9/11, tend to reignite national pride, patriotic fervor, and a temporary truce between political combatants.

There has been that. In my neighborhoods, there were backyard parties, fireworks (some I am not sure were legal), and porches draped in patriotic bunting. Old Glory waved from the front door frames. A couple of streets close by were lined with small flags all along the block.

Now, here comes that overused qualifier…In spite of that…

It was unlike the 1976 Bicentennial. I fortunately got to observe that 4th celebration from the White House South Lawn as a new and naïve member of the Gerald Ford What House staff.

Even though the nation was amid turmoil—the end of the Vietnam War; social and racial unrest; a bad economy (President Ford’s slogan was Whip Inflation Now, replete with WIN buttons); and a Richard Nixon hangover—there was a national calm and a sense that our worst days were behind us. President Ford made speeches, but his purpose was to keep the focus off of him and on the country. Continue reading →

250th is a Departure from 200th Anniversary of Independence

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  JUN 20, 2026

I celebrated America’s Bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence−our formal separation from the British Empire−on the South Lawn of the White House, July 4, 1976.

I stood there waiting for the fireworks to begin, and looking up at the second-floor Truman Balcony I saw President Jerry Ford, in whose humble employ I was, First Lady Betty Ford, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, and Second Lady Happy Rockefeller. They were waiting, too, along with other dignitaries. The figures on the Balcony were backlit but still recognizable in the faint yellow glow of twilight.

When the sky did finally come to life with loud booms and patriotic colors shooting out from the ground, there followed oohs and aahs, applause and cheers. There was even a laser projection from the Washington Monument.

For me it was an out-of-body journey into a place and time I thought I would never experience growing up in South Dakota. It was all surreal, accompanied by a burst of patriotism and appreciation for just being there, an eyewitness to history. In 1976, I was fresh out of the corn and bean fields of downstate Illinois, where I was the editor of a daily newspaper. Continue reading →

Gerrymandering Jiujitsu

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  APR 19, 2026

“Redistricting is like an election in reverse. It’s a great event. Usually the voters get to pick the politicians. In redistricting, the politicians get to pick the voters.”
–The late Tom Hoferller, considered the guru of GOP reapportionment maps

That is exactly what is about to happen in Virginia April 21 when voters go to the polls to adopt or reject this amendment to the state’s Constitution:

“Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia’s standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?”

According to the Virginia General Assembly’s official description, current law says “Virginia’s eleven congressional districts are drawn once every ten years by the Virginia Redistricting Commission, a legislative body made up of eight legislators and eight citizens, with an equal number of Republicans and Democrats. Virginia’s congressional districts were last redrawn in 2021 and will next be redrawn in 2031.” Continue reading →

Random Thoughts to Take Your Mind off the Deeper Stuff

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  ARP 2, 2026

Deep thinking can give you a headache.

While peeling a bright red hard-boiled egg during Easter time, a random thought creeped in. Where did the tradition of the Easter Bunny and the colored eggs come from? I turned to the Internet and found more than I cared to know.

The Easter Bunny was first introduced by German immigrants to Pennsylvania in the early 18th Century. The origins actually dated back to an ancient pagan festival that celebrated the goddess of fertility. The bunny laid colored eggs for the children. The egg is a symbol of life, spring, rebirth, and renewal. During the Christian observance of Lent, a 40-day-long period of prayer, fasting and charity, eggs were not eaten, and after the observance, were and are now adorned with bright colors and decorations in celebration of the resurrection of Christ.

Easter to Christians is of course a sacred celebration of their spirituality and eternal life reminding the faithful that death is not the end of life, but a new beginning. It is this holiday that should serve as the renewal of our devotion to the teachings Christ preached during his time on earth, which serve as the essence of our human experience and the promise for everlasting life.

And now a return to the daily grind: Continue reading →

The End of Another Era

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  JAN 10, 2026

The year was 1981. Several of us were with our dear friends Ralph and Mary Vinovich at a dinner in Cheverly, MD, a small hamlet in Prince George’s County where we lived. The dinner sponsor had invited candidates campaigning for their party’s primary nomination to replace Congresswoman Gladys Noon Spellman, the victim of a tragic car accident, to mingle with the audience for a brief period.

One of the candidates approached our table and bluntly but politely asked if there were any Democrats at the table.

“No,” came our reply.

“Do you mind if I move on then?” the candidate asked. We all said, no, not at all. We understood the politics of party primaries and the time wasted in seeking the support of those who couldn’t vote for you.

We didn’t recognize the candidate, at least I didn’t, and it was pretty clear he didn’t know us.

That candidate was Steny Hoyer and he went on to win that solidly Democratic seat in Congress.

Hoyer, who announced his retirement last week, would claim that seat for 45 years. In all he can boast a 60-year career in politics. Continue reading →

The Sad, Shameful Saga of Ukraine

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  DEC 5, 2025 

“Any appeasement of Russia as the aggressor, any attempts to putting pressure on Ukraine as the victim of this aggression, is morally repressible and an outrage against human decency. To bow before Russia is to abandon shared values and plunge the free world in anarchy and chaos. Strong American leadership is the only hope.”
–Open Letter to President Donald Trump from 47 European leaders

The letter from European leaders was in response to President Trump’s Ukraine peace plan made public November 20. He told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he had until Thanksgiving to accept it. “This is my final offer,” Trump reportedly warned Zelensky.

Trump called the war a “loser” for everyone. He told reporters that if Zelensky didn’t agree to the plan by Thanksgiving he could “continue to fight his little heart out,” only without American aid.

The 28-point Trump plan and Trump’s incessant ultimatums blew up like a tin can sent flying by cherry bombs on the Fourth of July.

And for good reason. The peace plan was no such thing. It was a declaration of surrender written in the Kremlin, for the Kremlin, by the Kremlin and, yes, one US special envoy.

Columnist George Will wrote: “it reads like a wish-list letter from Vladimir Putin to Santa Claus.” Continue reading →

November’s Cascade of Commemoration, Celebration

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  NOV 26, 2025 

Thanksgiving is the crown jewel of a month-long celebration, commemoration and for many a deeply personal reflection of our heritage.

We just celebrated the 250th anniversary of the United States Marine Corps, which was commissioned by the Continental Congress on November 10, 1775.  

The following day, we commemorated the American men and women who have served and are serving in the Armed Forces. Veterans Day is the successor to the Armistice Day observance of the end of World War I on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.   Continue reading →

A Journalist Who Rode the Rails to Professional Respect

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  OCT 16, 2025 

There were not a lot of journalists covering Capitol Hill in my 13 years there that I called a close friend. There were many with whom I had friendly, but strictly professional relations. And there were a few from whom I would hide under my desk when I saw them strolling down the narrow corridor to the Republican Leader’s office where I worked.

Among the friends was Don Phillips, the United Press International (UPI) Capitol bureau chief. Don was the quintessential reporter—knowledgeable, probing, thorough, honest, trustworthy, and eminently objective. He was also calm and composed in his work and most importantly, civil in the way he conducted himself. I admired him.

Don was among the journalists on a congressional delegation trip I took to Grenada, just a week or so after the U.S. invaded the island to protect American students there. He got us together with other reporters for a beer—or two—the night before in Barbados, where a military cargo plane had dropped us off. Don was known for bringing reporters and staff together for happy hours to build better relations.

We helicoptered into Grenada the following morning. Continue reading →

Random Thoughts

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  OCT 13, 2025 

In September, I read a column by Colbert K. King in the Washington Post that has troubled me ever since. It was his last column in the Post after he announced in June that he was scaling back, in part due to an illness that hospitalized him.

I’ve followed King for many years in Washington because of his tempered insights, reasoned thinking, seasoned by his intolerance for injustice. His character, calmness, and the kind of civic intimacy he expressed for his beloved city gave you the sense that he could be trusted and that his commentaries were an honest and sincere reflection of his experiences and perspective.

King, the winner of a Pulitzer Prize who has an endowed chair in his honor at Howard University, has had a distinguished career in journalism that began and has ended with the Post.

The September column seemed ominous. “My time is passing, and the hour is dark,” he wrote, “but I hold faith that wrong will be righted in the end.” Continue reading →

Ukraine in Crosshairs of a New “Evil Empire”

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  AUG 28, 2025 

There’s a telling and disturbing story about Russian President Vladimir Putin in the new book, The Situation Room, by George Stephanopoulos.

During an interview with former President Joe Biden, Stephanopoulos asked him about reports that as Vice President in a 2011 meeting he told Putin he had no soul.

“I did say that to him, yes…I wasn’t being a wise guy,” Biden confirmed. “I was alone with him in his office. And that-that’s how it came about. It was when President Bush had said, ‘I looked in his eyes and saw his soul’, I said I looked in your eyes and I don’t think you have a soul. And he looked back and he said, ‘We understand each other.’”

As I sort through the reams of news reports on Ukraine, now coming every day, all day, that passage haunts me. Continue reading →

Trump Stumped by Putin, But Wants Nobel Prize

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  JULY 15, 2025 

President Donald Trump keeps getting stomped on by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. Just in recent days, President Trump said he has had some “pleasant” and “lovely” conversations with Putin who he has called a friend for years. Shortly after those calls, Putin attacked Ukraine again.

With friends like that, who needs enemies.

At the same time, President Trump has publicly and aggressively campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize. He really needs to suspend the campaign until he can fully recognize the delusions he harbors about the Russian President.

In the past couple of weeks there are indications he may be turning a corner. We must hope it doesn’t become a U-turn. He seemed to accept the fact that his Russian friend was not going to “STOP” (Trump’s word) the reign of terror raining down from the skies over Ukraine. He finally decided to open the pipeline for more weapons to Ukraine he says NATO nations will pay for.

When Putin continued the bombardment, Trump came up with a new threat: if Putin doesn’t agree to a truce in 50 days, he would impose severe economic sanctions (called secondary tariffs) on countries that buy oil and other critical products from Russia. Again, good effort, but maybe wasted. Former Russian President and Putin proxy Dmitry Medvedev said the Kremlin “didn’t care” about Trump’s “theatrical ultimatum.” Continue reading →

Let Mikey Do It!

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  MAY 28, 2025 

Some are calling him Magic Mike, but I’m not sure that moniker is fitting since it conjures up images of a male stripper.

Others call him Miracle Mike, but according to Wikipedia, that moniker went to a headless chicken in Colorado that became a national sensation 75 years ago. The chicken set a Guinness world record for surviving 18 months without that very important part of the anatomy.

House Speaker Mike Johnson may be flattered, but I expect not comfortable with adulation. He seems like a humble soul, who has a good sense of self, his surroundings, and the job he fell into a year ago when House Republicans fired his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy. Speaker Johnson is not a miracle-worker or the greatest magician since Merlin. He is a good leader who inspires others to both lead and follow. He bows to no one in the practice of dealmaking.

The Speaker would be more appropriately cast as a maestro who transposes the discordant sounds of discontent and division into a harmonious symphony, at least long enough to accomplish what he seeks to do in the House.

Continue reading →

Ukraine: Battleground for Democratic Rule

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  MAY 5, 2025 

When I was a young journalist, I wrote newspaper columns. In one I lamented the fact that through most of my life the US had been involved in one military action after another, from Asia to the Caribbean. I wrote it during those days and weeks we were ingloriously taking our leave from South Vietnam, 50 years ago this month.

It was an era when many Americans, especially the younger generations, were tired of war and longed for lasting peace. Music of the time reflected that, especially the reincarnation of an ageless Civil War era African-American spiritual, Down by the Riverside. Among the lyrics: “I’m gonna lay down my sword and shield, down by the riverside. I ain’t gonna study war no more.” Pete Seger recorded a new version in 1963 and it became a Vietnam protest ballad.

So here we are again. More than a half-century later, while global war has been averted, military conflicts are widespread, from the South Pacific to the Persian Gulf, the Indian subcontinent, Eastern Europe, Africa, South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

You would think that the young journalist today would side with President Trump’s car-lot dealmaking style to end the war in Ukraine at any cost as long as it benefited the dealership. No thanks.

The United States must stand behind Ukraine, aggressively. Continue reading →

Random Thoughts: A Study in Randomity

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  APR 28, 2025 

Pondering the gravity and sometimes depravity of political events over the past four months has been exhausting. They have been too discombobulating to dwell on for very long.

To protect your sanity, sometimes it is better to just let the mind wander to things a little lighter that don’t require much cognitive activity. Let your mind flow freely through the randomness of life around you.

For example, this spring, as in every spring, I think about why nature produces so much pollen, why it is yellowish green, and why certain pollen affects some people more than others? Isn’t it odd that someone named Johnson is allergic to johnsongrass? I am.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Continue reading →

It’s Time to Make Civics Great Again

BY Louise Dube’ and Shawn Healy, Ripon Society Forum  |  APR 19, 2025 

The Founders would be appropriately bewildered by many facets of modern life in year 250 of the American experiment, but they’d probably be downright shocked by how far we have let our approach to educating young people stray from their original vision.

They believed unequivocally that the point of education in America should be to impart knowledge to young people that would help them be responsible citizens, contributing members of their communities, and ultimately, defenders of constitutional democracy. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison extolled civic learning as a bulwark against tyranny. And President George Washington, in his final Annual Address to Congress in 1796, said that the “education of our Youth in the science of Government” would prepare them to be “future guardians of the liberties of the Country.” Continue reading →

What Does DOGE Do? What We Need to Know

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  APR 2, 2025 

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) says it has saved American taxpayers $130 billion, or $807 per taxpayer, since it started rummaging through Federal agencies for “waste, fraud, and abuse” two months ago.

I heard those numbers and much more during an interview with Elon Musk and his seven-member cabinet on Bret Baier’s Fox News program on March 27th. The DOGE cabinet is a group of experienced former senior executives with expertise in business, technology, and general entrepreneurship. This was the first time—at least for me—to hear Musk and his senior people explain what they are doing and what they expect to accomplish.

It was long overdue.

Baier didn’t conduct the kind of interview that most journalists and Musk antagonists would be happy with. There were no ‘gotcha’ questions or tense exchanges. Baier let his subjects speak their mind for nearly an hour. Continue reading →