Whose Republic Can Protect Democracy?
Elections & Politics Policy Brief #136 | By: Rudolph Lurz| August 10, 2024
Featured Photo: www.lawliberty.org
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“A Republic…if you can keep it.”
Joe Biden quoted Ben Franklin during his Oval Office address explaining his withdrawal from the 2024 campaign. He used Ben Franklin’s words to urge his supporters to carry the banner of the ideals of the Founding Fathers and avoid falling into the trap of autocratic rule. President Biden, and now Vice President Harris, have made “defending democracy” a central theme of the Democratic Party’s campaign.
This same quote from Franklin is used by the Heritage Foundation to stress that America is a Republic, not a democracy, and measures must be taken to ensure that government remains limited in order to protect essential liberties. Such measures include defending the Electoral College and the ability for U.S. Senators to serve as many terms as they would like. Preserving the Republic, according to the Heritage Foundation, means “tempering egalitarian zeal and moderating the hope for a perfectly just democracy.”
President Trump himself called Joe Biden “the destroyer of democracy” at the beginning of the 2024 campaign, and blamed President Biden for a weaponization of the justice system against political opponents and turning America, in Trump’s words, into a Third World country.
The Heritage Foundation, President Biden, and former President Trump all claim to be the true defenders of the Republic, and two out of three quote Ben Franklin to prove their points.
Who is right? Whose Republic will America be in 2025?
Civics in the Spotlight
The defense of American democracy seems better suited for a high school civics debate than a presidential campaign. In most campaigns, it was a conceded point that both Democratic and Republican candidates agreed on basic civic principles.
This is no ordinary campaign. Low civics competency compounds these issues. In 2022, just 22% of American 8th graders were proficient in civics. In a recent survey of college students, over 50% of those contacted could not identify basic aspects of American government. 60% could not name the term limits of members of the U.S House of Representatives or U.S. Senate. Over 70% did not know that Kamala Harris was President of the Senate (28% named Joe Biden in this role). Over 50% could not name the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (John Roberts).
The GOP base seems remarkably consistent with their messaging on this issue, despite the gap in education levels between the Democratic base and the Republican base.
In 2016, following victory in the Nevada caucus, Donald Trump proclaimed, “I love the poorly educated,” which instantly became a meme on social media. His supporters felt the designation was unfair, because he also stated in his victory remarks that he won the highly educated as well as all other demographic categories of voters. Almost a decade later, the data suggests that those with lower education levels are much more likely to support former President Trump. In a recent Pew Research poll, taken just before President Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 election, Mr. Biden led Mr. Trump among college graduates 50%-37%, while Mr. Trump had a sizable lead among those with no college degree (48%-34%).
Mr. Trump has good reason to love the poorly educated, because they are among his strongest supporters. Across social media, there is a consistent theme from Mr. Trump’s supporters stating, “We are a Republic, not a Democracy.”
From the average Trump foot soldier on social media to the erudite fellows at the Heritage Foundation, the GOP is on message with that declaration.
What’s the problem if both Heritage and President Biden quote Ben Franklin and laud the virtues of the American Republic? Does the American electorate have the civics competency to navigate the dueling messages?
Analysis
The vitriol and personal attacks which often follow Republic/Not Democracy social media posts offer clues to why Team Trump is amplifying civics. It’s not about civics. As I highlighted in a previous post analyzing GOP education policy, these measures are about consolidating power, not educating the public.
Despite the fact that nearly 70% of American college students could not name James Madison as the “Father of the Constitution”, Americans generally have positive feelings about their country’s founders. Mention things like the Constitution, Alexander Hamilton, or The Federalist Papers and one would generally find a receptive response from the average citizen. Hamilton was a hit on Broadway and Hollywood. Americans know who these people are and love them.
Most Americans, even highly educated ones, do not have the civics competency levels to read deeper into what the Founding Fathers were actually saying. Confirmation bias is a problem. If Team Trump says that former President Trump is the true defender of the American Republic, those who lean right are likely to repeat Team Trump’s talking points on this issue. Those in the middle who recognize Hamilton from a musical but have never read The Federalist Papers will hear both parties quoting the same people and shrug the entire issue off as a draw.
The issue here is that even a draw benefits former President Trump. A more careful reading of The Federalist Papers, along with further analysis of recent work from conservative intellectuals, reveals that the intent behind this push for civics is about power, not liberty. They are using Hamilton, Madison, and The Federalist Papers as a Trojan Horse to prepare the American public for more executive power. The person intended to wield this power is Donald Trump during his second term in office.
When that power is wielded to curtail decades of democratic progress, the line of “We’re a Republic, not a Democracy” will be used to explain that everything is ok.
That is not what the Founders wanted when they forged the American Republic. They were wary of demagogues using the mob to grasp more and more power. They set up the checks and balances of the government to ensure that American liberty was safeguarded from these demagogues.
Donald Trump resembles the demagogues depicted by Hamilton and Madison more than Hamilton or Madison themselves.
Our Republic is dependent on civil and strenuous debate in the public sphere. Whoever wins the election in November should engage with critics instead of demanding that they kiss the ring of their feudal lord and swear fealty.
It is great that civic education is back in the spotlight. It is important that it is not used as a tool to bring the populace back into the shadows, erasing decades of social progress. To keep Franklin’s mission intact, we must actually read the works of the Founders. The Republic that President Biden mentioned in his Oval Office address requires defense. It’s our job to keep it.
Engagement Resources
- The Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025”: Project 2025 | Presidential Transition Project
- Full Text of The Federalist Papers: Full Text of The Federalist Papers – Federalist Papers: Primary Documents in American History – Research Guides at Library of Congress (loc.gov)
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