A Nation, or a Republic?

“A republic, if you can keep it.” --Benjamin Franklin's response to Elizabeth Willing Powel's question: "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

When I was growing up I always understood my identity in America simply: I was a citizen of our country, the United States of America. Citizenship-wise, I was American. That’s all there is to it.

But as our nation hurdles towards an election season marked by a fight for democratic norms & so much of the country seems out of touch with one another, I’ve been pondering: are we a nation, or simply a band of states united by an increasingly ineffective Federal government – a country by name, a republic by nature?

The answer is both, of course. Despite the deep political polarization of contemporary politics, the USA as a band of states has stood united in the face of pandemic, famine, and World Wars. We share the same passport and President.

But today, the citizens of our nation march in different directions on basic values & norms. One political party is supporting a candidate who openly attempted to overturn the results of a democratically held election. The tool of impeachment - once a measure of last resort to be used only sparingly and when absolutely necessary - has become a partisan tool used to attack policy rather than performance.

Sentiment in America has been brewing of another Civil War. Not one steeped in physical violence but fundamental disagreements on the role of government, shared values, and whether a national breakup is the only solution to such differences. They say the average empire lasts 250 years; America is 235 years old. 

There is no reason we should assume our nation will last forever.

To be clear, I hope for our nation to stay together. A united America is significantly stronger than a theoretical multinational conglomerate spread across North America. Plus, the economic and cultural fallout from a USA breakup would be catastrophic. Whole new systems from economic regimes like the Federal Reserve to the courts to borders would have to be rebuilt from the ground up. For those of us living through such a transition, it would promise to be rough.

At the same time, the US federal system is in dire need of reform. We are rewarding losing ideas in our political system. The electoral college has handed the presidency to two losers of popular vote in the last 20 years. The Senate - which grants Wyoming’s 578,000 citizens equal power to California’s 40,000,000 - allows a minority of the nation to control the legislative priorities of all of us. Combined, these structures create a losing incentive structure. The electoral college quite literally allows for second place to take the presidency & the Senate prioritizes the importance of Statehood over Nationhood. I firmly believe that if the republic is to survive, these elements of our Constitution need to be reformed. The Electoral College needs to be replaced by the popular vote. And the Senate needs to be restructured so states with larger populations have more representation in the chamber (for the record - that sort of Senate is what Washington, Madison, John Jay & Hamilton wanted, but during the Constitutional Convention they were forced to compromise). Such reforms are needed if the United States is to outgrow our confederationist history and be the democracy and Nation it can be.

I’m proud to be an American. But how our system of government handles major differences in values and policy isn’t working. And as citizens of the USA we must begin to ask ourselves the tough questions, beginning with this:

Do we value ourselves as members of a Nation, or members of a Republic?

The answer may well determine the future of the American empire.