You Probably Know this Story
Many of us have heard this story at some point in our lives. Perhaps in high school we had to read Virgil’s Aeneid where Virgil describes the Trojan Horse used by the Greeks to enter the city of Troy and win that war. After a ten-year siege of Troy, the Greeks built a huge wooden horse. In it they hid a select group of thirty warriors including the Greek’s king Odysseus. The remaining Greeks pretended to sail away while the Trojans pulled the wooden horse inside their city’s walls. During the night, the Greek soldiers inside the wooden horse crept out of it and opened Troy’s gates for the rest of the Greek army which by then had sailed back under cover of darkness. The Greeks attacked Troy, destroyed the city, and thus ended the Trojan war.[1]
The Trojan Horse Meaning Today
Today the term “Trojan horse” has come to be a metaphor for us meaning “…any trick or stratagem that causes a target to invite a foe into a securely protected bastion or place. A malicious computer program that tricks users into willingly running it is also called a "Trojan horse" or simply a "Trojan".[2] Yet a “Trojan horse”, speaking metaphorically, can come in many forms besides computer viruses or malware.
Another Type of “Trojan Horse”
Society’s that are democratic in governance and embrace democracy’s freedoms are especially susceptible to the deception in the form of a special type of “Trojan horse”. The open nature of a democracy, given a certain set of conditions and circumstances, can make it particularly vulnerable to an “infection” that takes hold and undermines it. And this infection that undermines a democracy is brought to it by those who serve in the very governmental institutions of democracy they have sworn an oath to protect. In fact, those that are a part of this “Trojan horse” destroying democracy do not have to hide away in a “wooden horse” and enter democracy in the dark of night as the Greeks did to Troy. They enter it in “broad daylight because in a democracy, they can be elected.
How a “Trojan Horse” Undermined Democracy
In their book Tyranny of the Minority, Levitsky and Ziblatt use the example of anti-democratic mob that attacked the French parliament on February 6, 1934 to illustrate the Trojan horse” effect on a democracy. On that date, a mob, comprised of tens of thousands of young men who were members of veterans association and right-wing militias (called “leagues”) were angry. Just ten years earlier France had emerged victorious for World War I and French democracy, Europe’s oldest, was viewed as a model for that continent.[3] But things in France were changing as Ziblatt and Levitsky describe it:
“By 1934, though, the world felt unhinged. The great Depression, a serious of prominent corruption scandals, mounting unrest in the streets, and a period of governmental instability- thirteen prime ministers in five years- left a growing segment of the population feeling angry and disaffected.”[4]
These groups gathered in in Paris that afternoon. While the “leagues” represented were widely varied in their “…ideologies and goals, they were united in their hostility toward parliamentary democracy. Some of them were quasi-fascist,…A few groups sought to shut parliament and replace with a “ministry of public safety” or even a restored Bonapartist government Others merely aimed to block the official tallying of votes inside the parliament building, with the hope of installing a right-leaning government.”[5]
As Ziblatt and Levitsky describe, “That night events took a nasty turn.” The mob stormed France’s parliament building clashing with police, gun shots were fired, and members in Parliament could hear the mob chanting “Hang the Deputies”. While the police eventually quelled the mob violence by 10:30pm, several people were dead and hundreds injured.[6] France’s democracy survived that night, but it was severely damaged and weakened. The prime minister resigned replaced by a right-wing politician “acceptable to the leagues” (militias). The right-wing insurrectionists achieved their goal of unseating a “center-left” government from taking office and replacing it with one of their choosing (i.e., right-wing).[7]
What this “Trojan Horse” Unleashed on France’s Democracy
What happened next explains why, within a few years, France’s democracy would die. Members of France’s leading conservative party, the Republican Federation, were very tolerant of this insurrection. It had members that were also members of one of the “leagues” that had assaulted Parliament. In general, while some conservatives decried this assault on democracy, most conservatives in France did not see this as a “wakeup call”. Instead, “…fueled by their hatred of the left, doubled down on their support of the leagues.” The assault was downplayed, even recast as to what it was really all about, and efforts to investigate it were impeded and hamstrung at the highest levels of French government by members of the Republican Federation, some of whom were members of one of the very leagues engaged in the assault. The Parliament committee that investigated this assault on France’s democracy was constantly torpedoed and minimized to the point that by the time it issued its report, it was “virtually toothless”.[8]
Insurrections Succeed With Help from the Inside
Levitsky and Ziblatt cite the work of political scientist Juan Linz who maintained that politicians committed to democracy he called “loyal democrats” have three things they must do to support democracy:
“First, they must respect the outcome of free and fair elections win or lose. This means consistently and unhesitatingly accepting defeat. Second, democrats must unambiguously reject violence (or the threat of violence) as a means of achieving political goals…third…they must always break with antidemocratic forces.”[9] (emphasis mine)
But, what happens if those who say they are loyal to democracy refuse to do this? What if they refuse to break with anti-democratic forces as parliamentary members of France’s the Republican Federation members did in 1934?
After all, they often talk a “good game”. They look like their colleagues who support democracy. They are usually not overt in their anti-democracy behavior and words. In fact, they like to think of themselves as and claim they are patriots. But, they “look the other way” when anti-democratic forces and their actors join their ranks. Linze called these “semi-loyal” democrats.[10]
And when anti-democratic behavior happens before the semi-loyal democrats’ eyes, they do not condemn it. Instead, they excuse it, minimize it, or ignore it. They don’t always associate with the most extreme anti-democracy actors, but they tolerate them. They condone this anti-democratic behavior, impede efforts to investigate it and confront it. At first they may be quiet about their support of the anti-democrat actors. However, eventually, when they feel it is “safe” to do so, they become more visible and eventually brazen in their position of supporting those that undermine and weaken democracy.
They are not democrats. They are faux democrats. The hard-core anti-democrats overtly attacking democracy cannot succeed without the support of these “semi-loyal” democrats. Metaphorically speaking, the semi-loyal, faux democrats pull the “Trojan horse” containing those that will attack democracy into the halls of government.
A “Trojan Horse” is now Embedded in American Government
Today, a Trojan horse of anti-democrats has been “pulled” into the halls of the U.S. Congress. They are now not only embedded in Congress, but they were also a major presence in the Trump administration and are now part of the second effort to get Donald Trump re-elected president. And faux, “semi-loyal” democrats are there in Congress helping them in every way they possibly can. Examples of them, as well as why and what they believe and say are everywhere. It is imperative that we understand what they are really saying and doing as well as why it is so destructive to democracy. We will see a disturbing picture quickly if we simply look at what is going on before our eyes. The message they deliver is what betrays them. Their pronouncements clearly expose them for what they are- anti-democratic corrosive force whose beliefs and values that are antithetical to and undermine democracy.
Take for example, New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY). Stefanik is an election denier who refused to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. Recently in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” she would not commit to certifying the 2024 election. Stefanik was asked “Would you vote to certify, and will you vote to certify, the results of the 2024 election no matter what they show?”[11] According to NBC news, Stefanik’s reply was:
“We will see if this is a legal and valid election…What we’re seeing so far is that Democrats are so desperate, they’re trying to remove President Trump from the ballot. That is a suppression of the American people. And the Supreme Court is taking that case up in February — that should be a nine to zero to allow President Trump to appear on the ballot because that’s the American people’s decision to make this November.”[12]
This is a disavowal by the House Republican Conference Chair of the democratic principle of both the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power! A strong case can be made that these two principles are two of the most important for sustaining democracy.
More “Faux Democracy”
Another example is that of election denier Ohio Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH). In a contentious interview with ABC News he “doubled down” on his views of the 2020 election. Vance said that the election results should not have been immediately certified. Vance has been mentioned in the media as a potential running mate for Trump and was asked if he would have certified the 2020 election results as vice president, as required by the Constitution and as then-Vice President Mike Pence in fact, did do.[13] According to ABC News, Vance said:
"If I had been vice president, I would have told the states, like Pennsylvania, Georgia and so many others, that we needed to have multiple slates of electors and I think the U.S. Congress should have fought over it from there," he continued. "That is the legitimate way to deal with an election that a lot of folks, including me, think had a lot of problems in 2020. I think that's what we should have done."
This is not true! It's not a legitimate, legal way “to deal with an election” because the Constitution makes no such provisions for this. No evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election has ever been confirmed. Election results across the country were affirmed by local officials across the country, including many Republicans.[14] Here we have made by a United States Senator arguments to ignore the democratic precept of the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power. But Vance was not done yet. He went on to suggest former president Trump should ignore "illegitimate" U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
Vance had said in September 2021 that if Trump is reelected in 2024, he would advise the former president to "fire every single mid-level bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people" -- and, if and when the courts tried to stop him, "stand before the country like Andrew Jackson did, and say, 'The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.”[15]
When asked about the president firing everyone in the government and then defying a legitimate Supreme Court ruling, Vance said:
"The Constitution says that the Supreme Court can make rulings ... but if the Supreme Court said the president of the United States can't fire a general, that would be an illegitimate ruling," Vance said.[16]
This is an astounding lack of constitutional and historical knowledge as well as their interpretation by a sitting U.S. Senator. Moreover, Vance is citing President Andrew Jackson’s defiance of the Supreme Court’s decision in Worcester v. Georgia (1832) which revolved around Georgia’s attempt to apply state laws to Cherokee lands. The Court had ruled against Georgia’s authority to do so and Jackson, dedicated to Native American removal, allegedly challenged the high court’s Chief Justice saying, “John Marshall has made his decision now let him enforce it.”[17] Against that SCOTUS ruling the Cherokees’ land was taken from them at pennies on the dollar and they were forcibly removed by the United States government to Oklahoma via the tragic Trail of Tears. This is Vance’s view of the- a monarchical one.
The Proliferation of “Semi-Loyal” Democrats and Their Damage to Democracy
There are more examples of these faux democrats (aka semi-loyal democrats) in office today. All have been working since 2020 to quietly open the “Trojan horse” of anti-democracy and let democracy die, replacing it with fascism. There are U. S. Senators like Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) who had roles in the objecting to Congress’ certification of the 2020 election.[18] There is Congressman Scott Perry (R-PA) who connected then President Trump with little known Justice Department attorney Geoffrey Clark. The intent was that Clark would replace the “non-cooperative” Acting Attorney General Rosen and send DOJ letters to swing states calling into question their state’s elections. Trump did not appoint Clark only when it became clear that if he did, he would have wholesale resignations of top DOJ officials.[19] There is Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) who has not been able to explain coherently his obviously sympathetic view on the fake elector scheme that some of his fellow Wisconsinites were sued over and resolved only by their admission that Joe Biden won the 2020 election.[20] And don’t forget the now House Speaker Mike Johnson who took a lead role in filing a legal brief seeking to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election, echoed some of the wilder conspiracy stories pushed by then president Trump, and voted not to certify that election.[21]
Donald Trump is the most obvious example of this anti-democratic effort having announced his plan, if re-elected, to be “dictator for a day”[22], as well as his infamous Project 2025[23] prepared through the Heritage Foundation. It is a blueprint to gut American democracy including eradicating all Executive Branch civil service positions and replacing them with patronage, spoils system political appointees, all of whom would be chosen for their blind loyalty and fealty to Trump. Project 2025, if implemented, would create an all-powerful presidency also known as dictatorship.
The “Trojan Horse” that has Damaged Our Democracy the Most
Arguably, all this damage to democracy just described, and more, would not have been possible without a key ingredient. The institution in our democracy that has been most devastated by letting the anti-democrat “Trojan horse” invaders inside our democracy has been done to one of our major political parties- the Republican Party.
Without question, today’s GOP is “the party of Trump”, controlled by Trump advocates from the local level on up the “food chain” to Mar-a-Lago. The Republican Party has not had a new party platform since 2016, utilizing the 2016 platform again for the 2020 election.[24] No matter though, because there is not much GOP interest in policies, much less coherent governance. They are, however, extremely interested in attacking the “opposition” (i.e., “owning the libs”), creating a radical Christian nationalist state, opposing immigration reform, imposing an abortion ban, attacking those they believe are their political opponents, and gaining power for the sake of holding power. The GOP is also focused on aligning itself with the agenda of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and opposing further funding of military aid to Ukraine to fight Russia’s invasion. The “marching orders” for all these things now come from their party leader Trump. Trump is in charge. In short, today’s GOP is anti-democratic.
The reader may ask, what about governance that is not based on any policy or policies, but is instead, purely ideology driven and focused solely on obstructing the policy efforts of “the other side” (whoever that may be)? This is a recent unfortunate phenomenon of our nation’s politics. Such a governance approach is especially dangerous to democracy as it really is no governance at all. Stuart Stevens explains why:
“…Stripped of any pretense of governing philosophy, a political party will default to being controlled by those who shout the loudest and are unhindered by any semblance of normalcy…”[25] (emphasis mine)
Perhaps former President Dwight Eisenhower said it most clearly in 1956, saying: If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.[26] (emphasis mine)
Dwight got it right. To “pile on” Eisenhower’s comment, governance with no overarching philosophy as to how one intends to govern, is not good governance, to say the least. It is, in fact, the absence of governance, merely intent on holding political power. That is the GOP today- a conspiracy driven excuse to seize and hold power. And all that the GOP does is required to revolve around their leader Donald Trump and meet Trump’s approval. In 2015 author Kurt Andersen presciently described the man that controls the GOP today this way:
“…a pure Fantasyland being, its apotheosis…He doesn’t like experts because they interfere with his right as an American to believe or pretend that fictions are facts, to feel the truth. He sees conspiracies everywhere. He exploits the myths of white victimhood. His case of Kids “R” Us Syndrome- spoiled, impulsive, moody, a seventy-year-old brat- is extreme. And he is first and last a creature of the fantasy-industrial complex.”[27]
Andersen got it right too. He describes the person that is at the helm of the cohort that came into office with this “Trojan horse”. This cohort has now exited the Trojan horse, is walking the halls of Congress, and is supported and aided by “semi-loyal democrats” who were there waiting to embrace them. They are wreaking havoc on the government of the United States of America. Because of that, democracy is now in its greatest danger since the Civil War. It is much easier to destroy democracy from within. Our nation’s foreign enemies like Putin may succeed in seeing our democracy crumble without a shot being fired. Putin is probably smiling right now.
Beware the Trojan Horse, especially if it’s directed by a former KGB agent’s lackey.
We will continue exploring topics like this gone that are not given near enough time and emphasis in our civic education efforts, if they are even taught at all. Democracy is so important. But it’s hard to keep, and it’s easy to lose. It’s up to us, and only us, to protect it. Support democracy, become a Democratist! Spread the word!
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Horse
[2] wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan Horse, Ibid.
[3] Tyranny of the Minority, by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, pg 34, Copyright 2023, Crown, an imprint of Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
[4] Tyranny of the Minority, by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, pg 34, Ibid.
[5] Tyranny of the Minority, by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, pg 35, Ibid.
[6] Tyranny of the Minority, by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, pp 34-36, Ibid.
[7] Tyranny of the Minority, by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, pg 36, Ibid.
[8] Tyranny of the Minority, by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, pp 37-40, Ibid.
[9] Tyranny of the Minority, by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, pp 40-41, Ibid.
[10] Tyranny of the Minority, by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, pg 41, Ibid.
[11] “GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik Won’t Commit to Certifying the 2024 Election Results”, by Summer Concepcion, Jan. 7, 2024, 8:22AM CST, nbcnews.com.
[12] “GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik Won’t Commit to Certifying the 2024 Election Results”, nbcnews.com, Ibid.
[13] “JD Vance Says He Wouldn't Have Certified 2020 Race Until States Submitted Pro-Trump Electors”, by Tal Axelrod, February 4, 2024, 12:09 PM, ABC News (go.com)
[14] “JD Vance Says He Wouldn't Have Certified 2020 race Until States Submitted Pro-Trump Electors”, ABC News (go.com), Ibid.
[15] “JD Vance Says He Wouldn't Have Certified 2020 race Until States Submitted Pro-Trump Electors”, ABC News (go.com), Ibid.
[16] “JD Vance Says He Wouldn't Have Certified 2020 race Until States Submitted Pro-Trump Electors”, ABC News (go.com), Ibid.
[17] Andrew Jackson and the Constitution | AP US History Study Guide from The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
[18] “Hawley, Cruz Escape Jan. 6 Probe, Have No Regrets Over Role”, by Lisa Mascaro and Farnoush Amiri, July 26, 2022, 11:06 CST, AP News.
[19] “Pennsylvania Congressman Aided Trump Effort to Flip Justice Department on Big Lie”, by Sara Murray, Jeff Simon, and Alex Rogers, August 12, 2021, 7:44 PM RFY, CNN, www.cnn.com.
[20] “GOP’s Ron Johnson Tripped Up by Fake Electors Claims (again)”, by Steve Benen, December 12, 2023, 9:39 AM CST, (msnbc.com)
[21] “House Speaker Mike Johnson Tried to Help Overturn 2020 Election”, by Nicholas Riccardi, October 26, 2023 10:50 AM CST, AP News, www.apnews.com.
[22]“Donald Trump Repeats Remark He'd be Dictator on 'One Day' if Reelected”, by Marina Pitofsky, December 11, 2023 12:07 PM ET, USA Today, www.usatoday.com.
[23] Project 2025 | Presidential Transition Project, www.project2025.org
[24] The Republican Party Platform, 2020, ballotpedia.org.
[25] It Was All a Lie, by Stuart Stevens, pp 94-95, Copyright 2020, Ibid
[26] “For Once the Internet Got a Quote Attributed to a President Right”, History News Network, Columbian College of Arts & Sciences, The George Washington University, October 12, 2018, https://historynews.network.org/article/1170216
[27] Fantasyland, by Kurt Andersen, pp 417-418, Ibid