"A Republic, if you can Keep it"
Someone asked Benjamin Franklin, one of the framers of the American constitution, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” His famous answer was: “A republic, if you can keep it.” Pranay Kotasthane says Franklin’s response is not understood even today across democracies. Sure, we hear a lot of people talk of democracy being at risk. This is confusing and misleading because the response usually goes something like this, “Elections are happening as scheduled. Power transfer happens peacefully based on the outcome (other than Trump’s supporters running riot when he lost in 2020). In which democracies have any of these things stopped happening? So how exactly is democracy at risk?” Those who are concerned are not articulating their concern correctly. When they say things like “majority rule is not right”, they don’t seem to realize democracy has always been about the rule of the majority! After all, democracy is a system by which the people who g...