@zachharris.eth

The Second American Experiment: A 250-Year Audit "These are the times that try men's souls" – Thomas Paine wrote that line not to comfort, but to shame the summer soldiers who'd back a cause only when it was easy. 250 years later, that's still the right test: who backs the American bet when the data gets uncomfortable? Franklin gave the bet its shape on the last day of the Constitutional Convention. Asked what kind of government the delegates had produced, he answered: "A republic, if you can keep it". Note the conditional. He didn't say "a republic, forever, guaranteed." He hedged it – on purpose, in public, four words that have outlasted every administration since.

1 reply

0 recast

6 reactions