Can we keep our American republic? Carl Cannon writes:
In 1787, as the Philadelphia delegates to the constitutional convention finished their handiwork, Elizabeth Willing Powel, a leading lady of America’s Founding, asked Benjamin Franklin (“Dr. Franklin,” he was called out of respect) the burning question on the minds of citizens in the fledgling country: “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”
Franklin’s pithy response — “A republic, madam, if you can keep it” — has been resurrected in the past year across the political spectrum. It’s the title of conservative Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch’s new book. It was cited solemnly by liberal House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in her speech calling for President Trump’s impeachment. It’s little exaggeration to say that both sides in our contentious political divide consider the 2020 campaign to be a “A Republic, If You Can Keep It” election.
RealClear has launched an educational portal on American Civics — this piece you are reading is its introductory essay — to give a fair accounting of the Founders and the successive generations who did their part in what Alexis de Tocqueville called “the great American experiment.” These pages won’t present a sanitized version of America. Lady Liberty is sufficiently beautiful that her blemishes needn’t be powdered over. On the other hand, modern revisionists mainly present a warts-only view of the United States. “American Civics” will do neither. The reigning ethos here will be that the country has nothing to hide and much to be proud of.
[Carl Cannon, "American Civics in the Time of Coronavirus,” RealClearPolitics, April 8]
