"A republic, if you can keep it." So said Ben Franklin upon exiting the Constitutional Convention in 1787, in his famous response to the question, "Well, Doctor, what have we got: a monarchy or a republic?"
A republic, if you can keep it.
On Wednesday, Americans got a stark reminder of what a republic looks like when you can't keep it.
"CAIRO," The New York Times datelined its report.
"Egypt's military on Wednesday ousted Mohamed Morsi, the nation's first freely elected president, suspending the Constitution, installing an interim government and insisting it was responding to the millions of Egyptians who had opposed the Islamist agenda of Mr. Morsi and his allies in the Muslim Brotherhood."
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Read those words again: In Egypt, the military ousted "the nation's first freely elected president, suspending the Constitution (and) installing an interim government."
Morsi, of course, had been in office for barely a year.
In contrast, since Franklin spoke those words on the steps of what's now Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the United States has not just survived but thrived as a constitutional republic for some 226 years.
All of which suggests that if Franklin's looking down from above on this Fourth of July, he probably feels that we've done all right.
And given the available evidence, the rest of us should feel that we've done all right, too.
-- Tom Dennis for the Herald
