LONG ENDURE: "Our democracy wasn’t designed for this?"

TUESDAY, JULY 7, 2026

Who is Jeffrey Rosen? Inevitably, the initial segment on The Five began with the Communist / Commies rant.

The Fourth of July had come and gone. Yesterday, Dana Perino started the show by playing the relevant clips from the president's rain-drenched address:

PERINO (7/6/26): Hello, everyone. It's 5 o'clock in New York City and this is The Five.

President Trump, bringing the fight against Communism to America's 250th birthday celebrations...

PRESIDENT TRUMP (videotape): We don't want Communists in our country.

PRESIDENT TRUMP (videotape):  Communism is a loser and it always will be. The Communist system is the opposite of the American system and the Communist system has never worked. Our warriors did not fight Communism on battlefields across the world only to have that menace rear its ugly head right back here in America. We're not going to let it happen.   

So said the president on July 4, in a rainy-day address. Now, it fell to the stars of The Five to move the agitprop along. 

This being a summer holiday week, several of the program's top stars are off in the south of France. For that reason, a slightly second-string lineup was messaging the public this day:  

The Five: Monday, July 6, 2026 
Kennedy: former MTV VJ 
Jessica Tarlov: resident punching bag 
Joey Johnny Jones: co-host, The Big Weekend Show 
Dana Perino: co-host, The Five
Tom Shillue: comedian

That was yesterday's lineup. After Perino played videotape of the president's statement, something designed to resemble a discussion ensued. 

Before long, Perino threw to Shillue. Inevitably, he took the cake: 

SHILLUE (7/6/26): If you look at the Trump speech, he uses the "Communism" thing a lot, but he goes on several levels.  

So he says, "Oh, the Commies are coming. We beat them. We went to war against the Commies, and we would do it again, but we don't have to."   

And then he would say, "Never worked, never will." See, that's the message that young people need to hear...    

It's great the way he— You know, when he gives a speech, you can see the speech, and then you see the boldface [points]...then he has his asides. So he said his bit about Communism, then he said, "It never worked, it never will," and then he said, "Communism is for losers, we don't want it."    

So it's like working on many different levels.  

We don't understand that either. So many different levels! 

Let's be fair. As best we can tell, no one but Shilluw stooped to talking about "the Commies" this day. But the messaging continued through the program's first half hour, with The MAGA Four all issuing C-bombs and with Tarlov being interrupted, as is the norm on this show.   

This is no country for intelligent discourse! Or at least, that's the impression we may get when we watch this top-rated "cable news" TV program. 

The viewership for The Five dwarfs that of corresponding programs on CNN and MS NOW. In our view, this helps explain the salience of Jeffrey Rosen's month-old essay for The Atlantic.

Rosen's essay appears beneath this dual headline. Who the heck is Jeffrey Rosen, and why is he saying these things?

IDEAS
American Democracy Wasn’t Designed for This  
Can our 18th-century institutions survive 21st-century technology?

Can our institutions survive? Who the heck is Jeffrey Rosen, and why is he asking a question like that?  

For today, we'll limit ourselves to your initial question. The leading authority starts its profile as shown:

Jeffrey Rosen (legal academic)  

Jeffrey Rosen (born February 13, 1964) is an American legal scholar, journalist, and author.

Rosen is a law professor at The George Washington University, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and the author of nine books, including New York Times bestsellers. He served as the President and CEO of the National Constitution Center from 2013 to 2026, where he is now CEO Emeritus. Rosen is a contributing writer for The Atlantic. He was a longtime legal affairs editor of The New Republic and was a staff writer for The New Yorker. He was also a writer for The New York Times Magazine and many other outlets. 

[...]  

Rosen attended the Dalton School, a private college preparatory school on New York City's Upper East Side, and graduated in 1982 as valedictorian. He then studied English literature and government at Harvard University, graduating in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude. He was subsequently a Marshall Scholar at Balliol College, Oxford, in philosophy, politics, and economics, from which he received a second bachelor's degree in 1988. He then attended the Yale Law School, where he served as a senior editor of the Yale Law Journal and graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1991.  

He started as one of those "good grades" types, then seemed to mature from there. In our own experience—Attention, C-Span Viewers!—he's presented many worthwhile legal forums during his years at the National Constitution Center.

And now, this month-old essay appears.  

As we noted yesterday, President Lincoln wanted to know if a nation like ours could hope to "long endure." In his essay for the Atlantic, Rosen seems to be saying this:   

Maybe not!

Also, can our institutions survive? As you can guess from his the Atllantic's dual headline, Rosen seems to say the answer might be no.   

Why in the world is he saying such things? And in what way might an agitprop pig-pile like The Five be part of the ongoing story?

We think the gentleman's aim is true. Tomorrow, we'll start to explain.   

Tomorrow: Rosen lays out his key points

MONDAY: As you probably may have guessed...

 MONDAY, JULY 6, 2026

With the exception of this morning's report, the Fourth of July continues.

Tomorrow: Who is Jeffrey Rosen?

LONG ENDURE: Can some such nation long endure?

MONDAY, JULY 6, 2026

Jeffrey Rosen's concern: Yesterday, we tried to click our way through the sitting president's speech.

(You can start by clicking here.)   

We refer to his rain-delayed public address of July 4th of this year. Due to the lightning the gods sent down, he wasn't able to start until 11:16 p.m. local Washington D.C. time. When he finally started to speak, the sometimes-invaluable Rev lets us see that he started by saying this:

PRESIDENT TRUMP (7/4/26): Good evening, America! You think that was easy? It wasn't.  

AUDIENCE: Applause  

The president was referring to the chaos of the rain delay. Then, as he proceeded, he tossed out a number--a number he may have made up:   

PRESIDENT TRUMP (continuing directly):   And I want to thank everybody because they did the right thing...

And they estimated they had 375,000 people before everybody had to leave. And they now have 150,000 people. It's the craziest thing anyone's ever seen. At least!

When the president describes some alleged accomplishment or some event, the accomplishment is routinely said to be something "no one has ever seen before." An invented number will often be present, perhaps to be embellished at some later date.   

The initial number may be replaced by an even larger number! And so it went on this occasion, as Mediaite reports: 

‘422,000 People!’ Trump Makes Wild Claim About Crowd Size at His July 4 Event   

On Sunday, President Donald Trump revised his initial claim that 375,000 people gathered for the America 250 celebration on the National Mall before the crowd was forced to evacuate due to weather.

“We’re here, we’re here, we’re here. There’s no way we can be deterred. They estimated they had 375,000 people before everybody had to leave and they now have 150,000 people. It’s the craziest thing anyone’s ever seen,” Trump said during his speech that began after 11 p.m. Saturday.

Trump revised that [first] number upward on Truth Social Sunday afternoon.  

“The Crowd at 7:05 in the evening was 422,000 people! All were forced to leave because of the weather, the event was cancelled, and everyone was gone because of lightning,” Trump wrote.   

By now, the initial crowd was said to be substantially larger. To peruse the Truth Social post, you can just click here.

Back in real time, back in the actual speech on Saturday night, astounding flattery of us the people quickly began after that. He was flattering us the American people. Here's how the fluffing began:   

PRESIDENT TRUMP (continuing directly from above): And I want to just thank you, and I feel so badly about some people they left, and they couldn't get back. 

But you're very special people, and we have a very special country. Thank you very much.   

Those who stayed were "very special people." That's how the fawning began.   

That might have seemed like a sensible word of thanks directed at loyal followers. But as the president's speech continued, the delusional flattery grew. 

By the time it was 11:18, the president was saying this:  

PRESIDENT TRUMP: For two and a half centuries, our American Republic has stood as the crowning achievement of human history...And we're doing better now than we've ever done before.  

No people have done more good, shown more courage, made more progress, righted more injustice or achieved more greatness than you, the American people.  For 250 years, the United States of America has been the hope, the promise, the light, and the glory among all of the nations of the world. 

All over the world, they try and be like us. Nobody can be like us. And with God's help, we will always be this, or even better.   

Nobody can be [as good as] us, the president had now said. Later, on several occasions, he traveled that road again:   

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Americans must never forget that we are a historic and heroic people with a heroic spirit and a heroic purpose on this beautiful earth of ours.

We are made of the courage and the fire and the flesh and the blood of the best and the bravest people this world has ever produced. We are the bravest and the best.  

Tonight we pledge allegiance to the flag they gave us, and we say, "God bless the immortal patriots of 1776 and long live the cause of independence."  May it reign forever and ever and ever. We will always be on top. We will never let our country fall. We will always be the best. 

"We will always be the best," the president said. As he continued, he turned to this:  

PRESIDENT TRUMP (continuing directly): Our founders not only won our liberty, they secured it with the most righteous political document ever conceived. It's called the Constitution of the United States. Very special.   

And it's because of their genius that we remain the finest people on the planet after 250 years.   

We're the finest people on the planet! So this severely challenged, disordered person now said. 

The people who stayed to watch the speech heard themselves praised in such ways. Much later, the president added the strangest claim he's ever made--the strangest in a fifteen-year public career of extremely strange public assertions:  

PRESIDENT TRUMP: After two and a half centuries, this American republic still stands tall and strong and we love each other.  

Say what? Do we the people love each other? American citizens, please! 

As you can see by clicking this link, we love each other so much that this very same sitting president did this the very next day:   

Trump also posted a doctored picture of ex-President Barack Obama and ex-First Lady Michelle Obama boarding Air Force One; the pic showed “BLM” and Obama’s slogan “Yes We Can” spray painted onto the plane, as well as some Arabic writing. 

Another doctored photo--and how strange! In the rendering posted by the apostle of love, Arabic writing had been spray-painted onto the side of President Obama's Air Force One! 

You can see that post if you click that link. (If you do, you will also read about the latest insults the sitting president has directed at Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister.)

As we've noted, we tried to click our way through the entire July 4 address. Eventually, what we took to be a succession of (tasteless) acts of "stolen valor" persuaded us to stop.    

We thought we were watching extremely tasteless behavior. Presumably, many of our fellow citizens didn't see it that way at all.  

Way back when, President Lincoln almost seemed to wonder if a nation constructed like ours could hope to "long endure." His famous speech started like this:   

PRESIDENT LINCOLN (11/19/1863): Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure...   

That nation has endured, right up to the present day. The population has actually grown, from something like 33 million back then to something like 345 million today.

Lincoln's nation has endured, in the most obvious sense. But in a recent essay for The Atlantic, Jeffrey Rosen suggests the possibility that the nation President Lincoln described may not endure much longer.  

Who the heck is Jeffrey Rosen? And why is he saying such things?  

We think his thesis is very strong. We also think it will be ignored, except right here at this site.   

Tomorrow: Who is Jeffrey Rosen?

SATURDAY: The messaging continued along...

SATURDAY, JULY 4, 2026

...right at the base of Mount Rushmore: In the last two weeks, we've alerted you to the rise of the sudden new messaging. 

Last night, the messaging continued. 

The sitting president was standing there, right at the base of Mount Rushmore. Sixteen minutes into the tapioca, he made an adjustment. 

All of a sudden, out of nowhere, at 9:21 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time, the messaging began:  

PRESIDENT TRUMP (7/3/26): You must love our country. There has never been anything like us anywhere on Earth, and we are not going to let anyone take that away.   

Yet as we approach this magnificent anniversary, we see our American identity under a renewed attack. A generation after we fought and won the Cold War against the menace of Communism, there is now a resurgence of the Communist menace in our land.   

With that, the messaging started. The president moved away from one childish theme—we're the best people who ever lived—directly to another.  

Shawn McCreesh was on the scene for the New York Times. In this morning's news report, he describes the sudden pivot:   

At Mount Rushmore, Trump Veers From Patriotism to ‘Communism’   

Four months before tough midterm elections, President Trump used the backdrop of Mount Rushmore one night before the nation’s 250th birthday to characterize his political opponents as “godless,” “evil” communists.

“We can only lose the midterms if we allow ourselves to lose the midterms, if we are foolish stupid and unwise,” he said...

The larger purpose of the speech wasn’t hard to miss. He was sharpening a line of attack that the White House has started to use to head off a newly insurgent progressive wing of the Democratic Party that appears to be resonating with liberal voters.  

Mr. Trump read from an apocalyptic script as the stony faces of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln looked on. He said the word “communism” so many times, you might’ve thought the Cold War was still on.   

With respect to those stony faces, observers swore they saw a tear emerge from Mr. Lincoln's eye even as the current president executed two flyovers in his new Qatari jet.   

(Will he use the plane for personal travel if he actually leaves the White House? No one seems to have nailed down the answer, and our news orgs don't much seem to care.)   

Back to the president's address:  

Just exactly how many times did he say the word "Communism?" Moving one step beyond McCreesh, we offer a provisional word count:  

Word count, Mount Rushmore address
"Communist:" 6
"Communism:" 8 

By our preliminary count, that's 14 usages in the six minutes devoted to this part of speech, with one additional "Marxist" thrown in. 

(As best we can tell at this time, he didn't say the word "Commie.")  

For the record, who are the Communists creating the current Communist menace? On what basis was he assessing them to be Communists?

The president didn't say. But as the messaging spreads during the summer and into the fall, you aren't likely to see any serious discussion of that second question. Our national discourse simply doesn't function that way.   

We were struck by one part of the president's description of the Communist menace. No one believes that he's religious, but he stressed this set of claims: 

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Communism is the exact opposite of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." It's death, tyranny and the pursuit of evil.

The godless Communist morality states that anything is justified to bring about inhuman visions and to really propose [sic] what's good. They don't love God and they don't want God. They don't love religion and they don't want religion, and they won't have it. But we won't let them win.  

The unnamed foes aren't simply Communists—they're actually godless Communists. 

They don't love God and they don't want God. By prevailing rules of the messaging game, observers are supposed to believe that the sitting president does.   

Presumably, this will be the messaging as we move toward the mid-term elections. It wouldn't hurt for us Blues to recall the various ways, down through the years, that we helped create this mess.