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Why the Supreme Court ruling against Donald Trump is good news · The Daily Article

• 0:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Good morning, and welcome to the Daily Article Podcast from Denison Forum.
• 0:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's Tuesday, August 18th, 2026.
• 0:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is an automated reading of today's Daily article authored by Dr. Jim Denison.
• 0:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Today's article is titled, Why the Supreme Court ruling against Donald Trump is good news.
• 0:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled yesterday that President Trump must pay E.G.
• 0:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: and Carole $5 million in damages, finalizing a verdict that found him liable for defamation and sexual abuse.
• 0:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: My response today has nothing to do with partisan politics or the merits of the case and everything to do with the system that led to the verdict.
• 0:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: By way of background, the Justice's denied Mr. Trump's initial request to take up the case in June, leaving the verdict against him in place.
• 0:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: He asked the court to reconsider that decision, but it refused Monday.
• 0:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Trump now has no more options to appeal the ruling against him, ensuring that the $5 million in damages he has been ordered to pay, Carol will stand.
• 1:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: She received $5.6 million in the case.
• 1:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: The $5 million award, plus interest, through a court-controlled account in July.
• 1:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: The latest ruling will give her the freedom to spend this money, and ensure it is no longer
• 1:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: I believe America's founders would be extremely pleased and perhaps surprised by this news, for reasons that are vital to the Democratic Republic they envisioned.
• 1:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: When Americans won independence from England and elected George Washington their first president, a great fear among the colonists was that they had replaced one king George with another.
• 1:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: They knew the consistent pattern of autocracies, theocracies, and monarchies.
• 1:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: The idea that a people could govern themselves was met with ridicule in England and much of the world.
• 1:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: The consensus of history was that fallen people needed a king, or theocrat, chosen by God, to rule over them.
• 2:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: America's infant republic would likely revert to such a monarchy over time, or so many believed.
• 2:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Even some of the founders were concerned on this point.
• 2:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: This was part of Thomas Jefferson's reasoning and emphasizing the rights of states, for example.
• 2:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: He and others did not want the federal government to become so strong that its leaders could you serve authority from the people and local governments.
• 2:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: The checks and balances the founders created were their answer to this problem.
• 2:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: The nation would elect a president.
• 2:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: The states would elect members of Congress to form an equal branch of government.
• 2:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: The courts would hold both accountable to the Constitution, but be subject to laws created by Congress and endorsed by the president.
• 2:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: For the U.S. Supreme Court to rule against the president of the United States is an example of our system at work.
• 2:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: You might strongly disagree with the court on the merits, or you might strongly disagree with the president's legal case.
• 2:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: The founders did not attempt a system that could forecast and solve for specific issues such as these centuries into the future, but they did seek to build a system that could handle such issues in ways that would ensure the continuance of democracy itself.
• 3:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: This ruling aside, our national trust in our institutions has fallen to dangerous lows.
• 3:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: The declining trust in others that I discussed yesterday is mirrored by studies regarding trust in government, churches and businesses.
• 3:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to a new bar in a report, Americans trust family members the most, 79%, and politicians the least, 26%.
• 3:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: In between, the larger the institution, the less it is trusted.
• 3:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: For example, 61% say they trust small churches, but only 36% say the same about mega churches.
• 3:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: 55% trust Christian pastors, but only 30% trust celebrity pastors.
• 3:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: The reasons seem obvious.
• 3:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: We trust what we know.
• 3:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Positions matter less than people.
• 4:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Unlike most societies for most of history, we are not centered on monarchies, hereditary titles and the like.
• 4:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: We aspire to a system in which anyone can become anything.
• 4:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: We are at our worst when we violate this aspiration through prejudice and injustice.
• 4:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: We are at our best when our founding belief that all men are created equal is mirrored in our attitudes and actions.
• 4:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Here's the problem.
• 4:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Democracy runs counter to human nature.
• 4:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Our will to power drives us to be our own God.
• 4:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: We therefore favor democracy so long as it elevates us to the status and position we seek.
• 4:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Once there, we want positional authority over those below us on the social ladder.
• 4:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: CS Lewis noted that no one who says I'm as good as you, believes it, or they wouldn't say it.
• 4:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: The wealthy person doesn't say this to the poor, or the educated to the uneducated.
• 4:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Those who feel themselves inferior to others seek to escape such social stratification.
• 4:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: But if they achieve the status they lack, they will refuse to confer it on others.
• 5:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is just one reason the founders insisted that consensual democracy requires consensual morality derived from consensual religion.
• 5:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: If men were angels, no government would be necessary as James Madison famously noted.
• 5:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: We are all addicts of one kind or another following people in need of the higher power that all 12 step programs embrace.
• 5:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Of course, none of this applies to you or me or so we might think.
• 5:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: People who write and read articles like this one are too godly to seek to be our own God, to humble, to be conceded.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, to quote Lewis again, if you think you are not conceded, it means you are very conceded indeed.
• 5:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: I sometimes joke that my next book will be titled, humility and how I perfected it.
• 5:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, I am prone to writing chapters in that book daily.
• 5:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: How humble would you say you are today?
• 5:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening to the Daily Article Podcast.
• 5:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: For links, scripture references, or to find out more about Dennis and Forum, visit us at Dennis and Forum.org or click the link in today's show notes.