As the United States nears the 250th anniversary of its founding, the core question posed by Benjamin Franklin in 1787 has never been more urgent: Can we keep the republic?
Franklin's famous exchange with Philadelphia socialite Elizabeth Willing Powell came after the Constitutional Convention. When asked whether the new nation would be a republic or a monarchy, Franklin replied, “A republic, madam, if you can keep it.” Nine generations later, that challenge looms larger than ever.
The nation's fundamental freedoms—the bedrock of what once was called a “shining city on a hill”—are under assault from the same kind of monarchical impulses that sparked the American Revolution. Today, corruption, self-dealing, and open greed have become the norm in Washington. Thomas Jefferson, who warned that human nature is prone to corruption, would likely be disappointed but not surprised.
Jefferson wrote that “enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm,” and foresaw a time when corruption would “seize the heads of government.” The Constitution's system of checks and balances was designed to prevent exactly this, but it has failed. The judicial and legislative branches have capitulated to a president who flouts the Constitution and builds monuments to himself. The Supreme Court has empowered him, while a timid Congress looks the other way.
Yet Jefferson also believed the American people, with their love of liberty, would not tolerate such a breakdown. The Constitution vests ultimate power in the people through elections. That power remains—for now—but it is under direct attack. The current administration and its allies are working to subvert the vote, the last line of democratic defense. Efforts include voter restrictions, threats of armed intimidation at polling places, and gerrymandering designed to manipulate outcomes.
Jefferson saw peaceful elections as revolutionary acts. He called the election of 1800 a “revolution … effected by the rational and peaceable instrument of reform, the suffrage of the people.” Today, Republican efforts to undermine that process are antithetical to the possibility of peaceful change. The nation stands at a crossroads, much like it did in 1860.
The November election is not just another midterm. It is effectively a presidential election, because the next Congress will decide whether the president can continue to erode democratic norms. As recent primaries show, the president's grip on the party is tightening, with critics being purged and loyalists elevated.
Jefferson wrote in 1787 that “a little rebellion now and then is a good thing,” comparing it to storms in the physical world. “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants,” he said. The bloodshed of the Civil War was the price of upholding the revolutionary principle that all are created equal. But Jefferson also prized peaceful change through elections. The current push to restrict voting rights—evident in Louisiana and other states—threatens that avenue.
As the White House plans record-breaking fireworks for the 250th birthday, the celebration masks a deeper crisis. Two and a half centuries after Franklin's challenge, we will not only find out whether we keep the republic. We'll also learn if we deserve it.
