How do we commemorate America’s democracy as Donald Trump undermines it? By embracing his opposition. The United States was founded by breaking from a monarchy. Trump wants to become king. An imperfect yet powerful system of checks and balances is being deployed to prevent him. The resistance is worth celebrating.

This is hardly the first challenge to US democracy. The early nation had no rights for Black people and no vote for women. It survived Jim Crow, the McCarthy era, and the “war on terror”. Yet there is no denying the seriousness of the threat posed by Trump.

He is trying to implement the classic autocrat’s playbook by chipping away at the restraints on executive authority. He has made dangerous inroads, but in most cases, the opposition has been significant. A struggle is under way, and the prospects for his success are dimming.

The Republican-led Congress has been most disappointing. It has largely swallowed Trump’s excesses because its Republican members fear him mounting a primary challenge against anyone who resists him. Bowing to his will, they enacted his “big beautiful bill” to cut taxes for the rich and healthcare for the working class. They discovered their backbones only recently to oppose funding for his ballroom, a slush fund for his cronies, and his proposal for voter suppression.

The courts have a better, if mixed, record. More than 300 lawsuits have contested Trump administration actions, many of them at least temporarily successful. The supreme court has handed Trump victories on campaign finance, immigrant deportation, racial gerrymandering and executive power over most independent agencies. It has also largely placed the president above the rule of law. But even the court with its presumptive 6-3 pro-Trump........

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