The election of the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives required four days and nights of nonstop negotiations. After fourteen rounds of voting, Kevin McCarthy was finally elected Speaker. McCarthy made major concessions to the far right, and with behind-the-scenes maneuvering by Trump, he barely passed, becoming the weakest Speaker in U.S. history.

This House Speaker election can be seen as a continuation of the aftershocks of the Capitol riot instigated by Trump two years earlier. It broke the previous record set in 1923, when nine rounds of voting were needed to elect a Speaker.

The disorder seen in U.S. congressional elections can be traced back to the presidential and vice-presidential election of 1800. At that time, Jefferson and Aaron Burr received the same number of electoral votes, requiring Congress to decide who would be president and who would be vice president. The House of Representatives held thirty votes over seven days, yet Jefferson and Burr continued to receive the same number of votes, making a decision impossible. In the end, Hamilton intervened in his capacity as leader of the Federalist Party, persuading several Federalist legislators to switch their votes to Jefferson, thereby making Jefferson president.

From that moment on, Burr harbored deep hatred toward Hamilton and proposed a duel. Hamilton, confused and careless, agreed to the duel and was shot dead by Burr, provoking public outrage. Burr could no longer remain in Washington and fled south to farm in the forests, later organizing armed forces and claiming he intended to fight the Spanish. He was prosecuted by the courts, fled to Europe, and only returned to New York to live out his final years after being acquitted. Hamilton explained why he opposed Burr becoming president: “Burr is dishonest, without principles, and dangerous; he would destroy the United States.” Such a dangerous figure managed to infiltrate Washington’s ranks, manipulate public opinion, and nearly replace Jefferson, almost destroying the nation.

Today, Trump is also an dishonest man. He has no moral bottom line. Relying on his magician-like powers of incitement, he deceived voters, refused to accept electoral defeat, and instigated the Capitol riot, nearly destroying American democracy. In this Speaker election, he once again wielded his power of agitation, stirring up the far right. If he were to make a comeback, it is hard to know where he would lead the United States.

More than two hundred years after the founding of the United States, the reappearance of a Trump-like figure akin to Burr forces a deeper examination of the legislative foundations of America—“freedom” and “democracy.” Bad people and dishonest people, like Trump with his spellbinding rhetoric, enjoy full freedom to incite the masses and, through a deceptive form of “democracy,” rise to power by manipulating votes. God is no longer invoked; God has become a mere ornament, and honesty has disappeared.

The Protestant Reformation that began in sixteenth-century Germany split Christianity into Protestantism and Catholicism. Protestantism removed many of the constraints of the old Catholic Church, releasing enormous power. Francis Bacon’s famous saying, “Knowledge is power,” shifted the source of power away from God, weakening faith in God. Britain then gave rise to the Industrial Revolution, and Germany later produced Marxist communism. Faith in God functions like a flushing toilet: when one bucket goes down, the bucket of utopia rises.

Bacon’s “knowledge is power” was challenged by the Jewish people, who argue that faith in God is the true source of power. They point to their history of millennia of hardship and suffering, yet continued survival. A nation of only eight million people stands firm in the Middle East; even great powers cannot defeat it. Faith in God is the source of their strength.

Britain, a Protestant nation, has a royal family that serves as a moral symbol, yet in modern times it has been plagued by scandals. The decline in royal prestige affects national stability. In contrast, Japan’s imperial family is free of such scandals and maintains moral authority as a model for the people. Japan has long been influenced by Confucian culture, preserving moral standards without decline. United Nations surveys rank Japanese civic quality among the highest in the world, enough to make Europe and America feel ashamed.

Marxist communism originated in Germany. With American assistance, Stalin rose to power, and his influence extended to China. Mao Zedong adopted Marxism, bringing the greatest harm to China. To this day, China has not broken free from the shackles of communism, and Confucian civilization has yet to be revived.