“A republic, if you can keep it,” is a quote famously attributed to Benjamin Franklin as he emerged from the Constitutional Convention, upon being asked what sort of government the convention’s delegates had created. What interests me most is the second half of Franklin’s quote: Franklin, a student of various forms of government, emphasizing the fragility of government. Our republic has proven to be resilient — surviving a schism in the 1860s, and other calamities before and since — but its continuation is neither a foregone conclusion nor a certainty.
This year and next mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War Two, perhaps the most massive undertaking in human history: The triumph of good over evil, with countless acts of heroism, and chilling, institutionalized viciousness. It also marks the victory of the rule of law over totalitarian government and all that follows from it. The lessons of the era, while we casually consider what would be revolutionary changes to our form of government, are many.
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