A Republic, if you can keep it.
On this Independence Day, we mark the 244th year of our country’s existence as a sovereign nation. In the days following the Founding Fathers’ deliberations on our governing documents at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Benjamin Franklin was asked at one point what form of government they had determined. He replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” [1]
Though short and genuine at the risk of sounding flippant, Franklin’s words echo a broader sentiment: involvement by its citizens, with consistent maintenance, are keystones to the survival of our democracy.
The Founding Fathers managed to set their sights far beyond what they could have comprehended, designing and developing the foundations of a governing system that has, so far, withstood the test of time. So far.
Each year, we face new and pressing threats to our democratic institutions, many of them completely foreign to the likes of Jefferson and Franklin. Now, as we combat a global health pandemic, and potential foreign interference in our election of likely unprecedented magnitude, it is more important than ever to revisit and reflect on our nation’s guiding principles during its inception, and how they apply to the new challenges we face today.
The problems and solutions of today may be far more complex than those of the 1700’s, but the forethought of our Founders has allowed their words to carry truth, centuries after their passing. The challenges revolving around administering an election during a health pandemic were not explicitly considered during the Constitutional Convention, and the emerging threat of cyber-attacks on our elections might overshadow the complexity of ballot-box stuffing by an agent of the English Crown. But, believe it or not, principles discussed during our nation’s founding can help us through both of these threats to the operational stability of our democracy.
Alexander Hamilton, while writing many of the Federalist Papers that eventually encouraged nationwide ratification of our new Constitution, emphasized the importance of free and fair elections, imploring that our sovereignty relies on these principles. In light of our current struggle to maintain election security against foreign interference, and the politicization of the debate surrounding it, Independence Day can serve as an opportunity to pause, and think: what would our Founders have done? In Federalist 68, Hamilton wrote,
“These most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than one quarter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils”.[2]
It was for this reason that the Constitutional Convention chose to have the people of the United States decide the president through electors, none of which can be Senators, Representatives, or other office-holders which may be tainted with foreign influence. We cannot maintain proper representation without free and fair elections, and without citizen engagement to do so. And now, during the COVID-19 pandemic, this has become an unprecedented challenge; we have seen a massive decline in voter registrations alongside hectic primaries around the country.[3] Lucky for us, the Founders thought of that, too.
Federalist 59, which explores federalism as it relates to elections, may help us find a way to address the election-related fallout from the health pandemic. In it, Hamilton wrote,
“[The Framers] have submitted the regulation of elections for the federal government... to the local administrations… [which] may be both more convenient and more satisfactory; but they have reserved to the national authority a right to interpose, whenever extraordinary circumstances might render that interposition necessary to its safety.”[4]
In essence: when things are “business as usual,” states and localities maintain full control of election administration, but when things go substantively awry (i.e., extraordinary circumstances), the federal government may need to step in.[5] In our current situation, our nation is facing off against a deadly contagion. Therefore, one can easiiy argue that we are as close as one can get to an “extraordinary circumstance” as described by Hamilton. In fact, we’ve witnessed tumultuous primaries over the past several months where balancing the safety of people, with their constitutional right to vote, has been a extraordinary challenge, with state/local governments working tirelessly to cope. In this instance, it would seem that the federal government has the responsibility (and the expectation of our nation’s founders), to take steps to ensure that our national general election (that is really 55 separate states’ and territories’ elections) in 122 days are as safe as possible for all voters without disenfranchising anyone in the processes.
Clearly our current circumstances are vastly different in practice to the political realities of the 18th century. We must now depend on cybersecurity and election audits alongside other efforts, to protect elections from interference. This includes implementing online absentee ballot applications, by-mail voting, and rigorous health safety protocols for the polling places that must be open, in order to guarantee voter safety during the extraordinary conditions of the 2020 election. In fact, as I post this we’re witnessing record breaking growth in citizens testing positive for COVD-19 across the country—56,000 new cases becoming a new single day record this past week and all but shuttering July 4th celebrations. Regardless of the cause of the resurgence, it is patently clear that this health crisis will bear down on our election, four months from now. Thankfully, as we’ve explained elsewhere, (now) 48 of 50 states have figured out, in a bipartisan manner, how to ensure voters can participate absentee to protect their health. And contrary to partisan attacks on that plan, the facts remain (as we’ve also recently laid out) that it will work safely and securely.
In short, whether it be finding ways to lock down vulnerable election management systems to avoid foreign cyber-operations today, or preventing meddling by King George back in the days of America’s infancy, our Founder’s warning still carries the same imperative: if we can’t confidently participate in the process to elect our own representatives, then the foundation of our democracy is in peril.
There’s good news: America is resilient. Our nation has weathered existential challenges for nearly 250 years through cooperation, determination and persistence. Our Founders knew that’s what it would take to maintain our republic.
What we must do now is sustain their legacy, by re-committing to those principles that form and keep our republic; by participating in our civic duty and civil right in voting; and by speaking out against threats to our institutions, to ensure that this experiment called representative democracy can be sustained and flourish for the next 250 years.
To be sure, there is an enormous amount of work to do in order to ensure free and fair elections, and the problems run far deeper than better technology. The OSET Institute is committed to doing what we can to improve that infrastructure for public benefit—as well as recognize the challenges go beyond the bits and bytes of technology. However, for today its about reflection on our nation’s founding and what it means to sustain its foundations.
On this Fourth of July, a re-commitment to our republic for which it stands as one nation is a worthy matter to ponder as we go about our celebration activities, curtailed as they must be in the storm of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Footnotes
Beeman, Richard. “National Constitution Center.” National Constitution Center – constitutioncenter.org. Accessed July 3, 2020. https://constitutioncenter.org/learn/educational-resources/historical-documents/perspectives-on-the-constitution-a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it.
Hamilton, Alexander. “Federalist No 68.” The Avalon Project. Accessed July 3, 2020. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed68.asp.
Garrison, Joey. “US Voter Registration Plummets during Coronavirus Pandemic, Challenging Both Parties.” USA Today. Gannett Satellite Information Network, June 11, 2020. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/06/11/voter-registration-plummets-during-coronavirus-pandemic/5336320002/.
Hamilton, Alexander. “Federalist No 59.” The Avalon Project. Accessed July 3, 2020. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed59.asp.
A deeper exploration of the concept of ‘extraordinary circumstances’, and modern-day equivalency in the context of voting-by-mail, is further detailed in The Potential of a Federal Ballot, an OSET research release from early 2020. https://www.osetfoundation.org/research/2020/01/08/vbm-federal-ballot