The next time we are warned about multiple red flags in a primary candidate, folks should pay better attention.

[gfarber]

32. Democracy's Fate

There once was a president brash,
Who leapt into war in a flash,
With “Epic Fury” named,
And Congress unclaimed,
He struck with a bombastic dash.

A nation as large as Iraq
Plus Afghanistan stacked on its back,
No case did he plead,
No lawmakers he’d heed,
Just marched down a unilateral track.

“Illegal?” some scholars inquire,
“Both domestic and global,” they fire.
Trump scoffs, “Sue away!
Make my day, if you may—
I’ll litigate slow as I desire.”

The War Powers Act they invoke,
But presidents treat it as a joke;
“Emergency!” they cried,
Or “Treaties!” they’ve tried,
And slipped through each congressional yoke.

If sixty days pass in a blink,
And Congress insists, “Time to think,”
He’ll challenge the law,
Let the courts sit in awe,
While hostilities harden and sink.

Once norms were the guard of the gate,
With trust as the hinge of the state;
But consensus now spurned,
And procedure upturned,
Leaves democracy testing its fate.

So lawmakers quarrel and spar,
As troops bear the weight from afar;
To curb future kings,
They must tighten the strings—
If a republic still knows what we are.

© 2026 Glen Farber. All Rights Reserved.