A Republic, if you can keep it,” Benjamin Franklin is quoted to have said on the last day of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. No other document like it existed in Europe, where monarchies ruled. 

American Democracy is an experiment in a different form of government, a democratic republic. The American Constitution, while grand and noble, is far from perfect. The Preamble to the U.S. The Constitution begins with three powerful words,  “We the People,” which present the essence of inclusivity, In order to form the more perfect union that forces the nation to hold as truth those three words, that we are indeed a country with a government made of the people, for the people, and by the people.

Since its founding, America’s promise to form a more perfect union has been tested. Too many times, she got it wrong. But through the process of Constitutional amendments and a Civil War, she’s been steered in the direction of living up to its creed and promise of inclusiveness.

The one thing we have learned over the past decade is that America’s democracy is not guaranteed and it is worth fighting for. 

America became the shining example of a democratic state, where people not monarchies ruled. In the last two decades, we’ve seen democracies crumble and give way to authoritarian regimes and dictatorships. Studies are showing a dramatic shift toward right-wing authoritarian tendencies, and this should alarm everyone.

The United States is a constitutional republic that is a representative democracy. That means we should encourage every eligible citizen of this country to vote and we should make it easier for people to cast a ballot, not harder. Instead, we’ve gone out of our way to make it harder for citizens to vote under the guise that millions of voters are voting illegally. This is simply false and spreading this lie jeopardizes the fabric that makes up our democracy. 

Covid-19 has taught us that what affects one of us affects us all. The U.S. Constitution was for fledgling democracies around the world. The world looks to us for leadership and our American democracy is worth fighting for. Without a strong democracy, nothing else matters: the fight for clean water and air, the fight for good education, the fight for affordable housing, and eliminating student debt…none of it matters if we lose our democracy. 

We must stand up for our democracy, not just when it’s politically convenient to do so. We must stand for democracy especially when it’s hard. That is the only way we can preserve it.

Original source can be found here.