As the convention that drafted the Constitution drew to a close in the summer of 1787, Benjamin Franklin famously counseled his fellow delegates that it would take hard work to “keep” the republic they were creating. Some 200 years later, President Ronald Reagan reiterated Franklin’s sobering assessment of what it takes to maintain constitutional government: Freedom “is a fragile thing … and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people.”

Today, the republic the founders created is at risk. As many have noted, our nation is deeply polarized, more seriously divided than at any time since the Civil War. Jonathan Haidt, who is not known for extreme views, predicts a “catastrophic failure of our democracy” because, he notes, “we just don’t know what happens when you drain all trust out of the system.”