Having been a student in Provo during the late ’80s and early ’90s and with several children there now, I maintain meaningful ties to a few Provo institutions that can provide unique assistance in buttressing the cherished American experiment in self-government.

One of these is BYU’s important Wheatley Institute, which has as its mission to “fortify the core institutions of the family, religion, and constitutional government.”

To me it appears that American democracy is in a full-blown crisis: having endured four years of Donald Trump as president, it now stares at the catastrophic possibility of another term. Between 2016 and 2021 the former president showed great contempt for the country’s cherished and indispensable democratic institutions. In some cases he dismantled and destroyed them, the peaceful transfer of power and trust in our free and fair elections being just two examples. I shudder at the possibility of a demagogue returning to that sacred office.

But perhaps I’m wrong.

Would the Wheatley Institute, using the teachings of the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints added to careful constitutional and historical scholarship, share their analysis regarding the probable effects of a second Trump term on America’s constitutional government, still the “last best hope of earth”?

Chris Stevenson; Purcellville, Virginia

Newsletter