Jennifer’s Shelter Island Journal: Jan. 23, 2026

That our democracy could’ve lasted 250 years — our present appallingly disreputable condition notwithstanding — truly begs credulity.

Not only does it fly in the face of our species’ history, but rails against its clearly aggressive predilections. In other words, “democracy” just ain’t our style. In the main, humans are selfish, greedy and violent. That’s how we roll. A lion lying down with a lamb? More likely a prelude to a tasty mutton dinner than evidence of comity.  

Once the special interests of our Founding Fathers were satisfied, namely their collective, all-men-who-are-rich-and-white-like-us desire to be equal in power and prestige to King George III, no others needed apply. In fact, after the British had been ejected from our infant nation, more than one of its electors suggested in private that George Washington should be crowned a king. If any of the supposedly apocryphal story can be believed, there was a plot to force him to accept that very title, thus creating, in him, our very own American version of  “King George.”  

Washington wasn’t having any of it, thank goodness, and insisted on making the presidency a temporary, two-term affair, though with his continued popularity, who knows how long he might’ve hung on to the office. It’s interesting to note that this two-term limit, seemingly so integral to maintaining our democratic system, remained merely a long-standing custom rather than an actual law, until, as our trusty pal A.I. explains, “… the two-term limit for the U.S. presidency was officially made law through the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1951, after President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected four times, turning a long-standing tradition into formal constitutional law.”

Wonder why they dragged their feet for over a century and a half before officially safeguarding that term limit, especially considering its importance to the “peaceful transition of power” that A.I. so aptly describes as ”…. a fundamental democratic process where leadership transitions smoothly from one group to the next … as seen even after contentious elections like 2000 or the recent 2024 transition.”

It’s almost as if some people were holding out for the possibility that some rich white man in the tradition of those aforementioned founding fathers (bearing a family resemblance, kind of) would come along and test that quaint old tradition, push the envelope and become a permanent leader, which, by any other name would smell a lot like a … king.

Because the fact is, having been royalty-deprived for so long, it seems that many Americans have, over time, become royalty-obsessed. Hollywood royalty, kings of industry, political “dynasties,” not to mention an overweening interest in Britain’s royal family, all have captured America’s attention. It’s hardly surprising, then, that the cynosure of all eyes and ears is, for the moment, laser-focused on that attention-mad “man who would be king.” 

After all, when the fifing and drumming has faded away along with the last stirring strains of our National Anthem (which, by the way, celebrates bombing and battling, with nary a word about freedom and equality) many Americans might be led to admit that they aren’t really all that comfortable with “democracy,” especially the “equality” piece, and never have been. Probably most humans in general aren’t. I mean we seem to love the concept that we, individually, are equal to the most privileged of humans, but we’re not all that sure about the other guy. We seem afraid that he’ll end up “equaler.” 

Equality confuses us, with the “pecking order” having been one of the organizing principles of human society since before recorded history. In this western part of the globe, white men have pretty much been in charge of brokering the fate of nations for millennia. Why that should be so is wide open for debate, but perhaps more than anything else it’s a habit. Nothing against white men — they’ve been imprisoned in the vice of “societal norms” as much as any of us, just ask the Duke of Windsor, but, over the centuries, they have been led by custom (habit) to accept their unequal share of privileges as their due,  they now are facing an uncertain future right along with the rest of us.

The difference being the rest of us have had more experience in facing uncertainty. It’s not surprising that a large group of us want to scramble back to the familiar; the idea of a having a king rather than a messy democracy is very seductive.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote, “… earth is crammed with heaven.” Agreed, but so, too, is it crammed with irony. I’m submitting this column on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, honoring a King by birth, a prescient man, who knew the truth: That our species will only be saved by finally recognizing that every member of it is of equal human value.