Like most of his fellow Founding Fathers Benjamin Franklin was an extraordinary man. He was a thinker, an inventor, a writer, a printer, a business man and one of the most renown scientists of his era. While he did not have a degree, he was nonetheless often called “doctor’ because of the knowledge and scientific experience that he possessed. He was a strong athletic man who swam alongside the ships that took him across the Atlantic Ocean on diplomatic journeys. The museum dedicated to Franklin in Philadelphia is testament to his multifaceted intellect.
Benjamin Franklin was also a well read man. He had studied history and considered the pitfalls of nations that echoed through the ages. When asked what kind of government he and his cohorts who signed the Declaration of Independence had created he famously answered, “a republic, if we can keep it.”
That cryptic phrase has served as a warning for all of the two hundred fifty years that the United States of America has existed. The founders had created a republic based on the central idea that the governing would be for and of the people. The Constitution’s intent was to make certain that no single individual would rule as a despot or king. The laws and the structures were chosen to distribute the duties of elected officials so that all three branches of government would in essence place limits on each other. The greatest fear of Franklin and his coauthors of our nation’s new form of government was that a tyrant might find a way to seize power.
Franklin had studied other republics like Rome. He understood how rot and corruption had a dangerous track record in history. He was thinking ahead when he quipped that we had a republic if we were able to keep it. He understood that making certain that the republic would survive required the Ameircian people and those that they sent to govern to operate with a dedication to protecting the freedoms outlined in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. He knew that it would be imperative for society to value free speech, the rights to protest and to understand the dangers of blurring the lines between the state and religion.
A republic is a form of government in which the power is held by the people and their elected representatives rather than a monarch. Leaders are chosen by the public through elections. The republic of the United States is also a democracy. The constitution specifically defines the limits to the powers of the elected officials and specifies the individual rights of citizens. Furthermore there is a division of power between the national and state governments.
It would be fair to say that the United States of America is in danger. Franklin’s warning should cause us all to analyze what is happening and voice concerns that our republic is presently looking quite fragile. Our president appears to work from the idea that only he understands what we the people need to make our nation great. He is consolidating power through executive orders that trample on the right of many citizens. He is using the Congress and loyal states to seize even more power. He has secured a group of individuals to carry out his demands without reservation. He ridicules and threatens those who dare to question what he has done. He seems to believe that the wishes of those who do not agree with him should be ignored and quashed. He is ruling in a way that threatens the viability of our republic.
The opposite of a republic can be defined by words like monarchy, autocracy, oligarchy, dictatorship, despotism, authoritarianism, and tyranny. Republics do not have kings or queens. In a republic no one person holds power over the other branches nor would there be a small group of people dedicated to maintaining the power of one individual. An authoritarian keeps a strong grasp on centralizing power, reducing liberties and using the rule of law to punish those who do not follow his desires. Anti-republics are often cruel and repressive.
It may seem farfetched to some to even think that our nation and our freedoms are in danger. They hear warning cries as hyperbole or unnecessary hand ringing by liberals who lost the election. They do not see that while Trump did win by just a little under fifty percent of the vote, the other half of the nation did not choose him. It was never intended for our government to be rigged in such a way that the voices of the opposition would be undervalued or squelched. The most important limit provided by our Constitution is the guarantee of freedom in addressing problems that the people see. It was never intended that one group would gain so much power that they would be able to trample on the voting rights of the other side. Nonetheless, our president is asking his loyal state government to fix the districting lines to ensure that Congress is dominated by his supporters even if doing so is disproportionate.
In Texas there are thirty eight Congressional Representatives. Through gerrymandering thirty of them go almost automatically to the Republican party and only eight to Democrats. With the new maps drawn by the Texas House that number is threatening to take five more to the Republican side. That would mean that in a state with millions of Democrats only three seats in Congress would be a sure thing. How can that be consistent with the intentions of a republic to protect the voices of all of the people?
I don’t like to sound like a crazed woman singing the same tune over and over again. I do not write because I hate Donald Trump. I do not have Trump derangement syndrome. I am simply analyzing what I see happening and sending a warning to all citizens of the United States that we are dangerously close to losing our republic if we continue to allow one person to dominate every decision regarding the laws of our nation. We have to make our voices and concerns heard. The futures of our children and grandchildren demand that we protect the nation that our founders risked their lives to create. This is our time to have courage. It is our time to protect our republic. I hope we can keep it.
All It Takes Is A Little Love 