The founders tried to guard against con artist tyrants — but our democratic republic may end anyway

Our founding fathers were of an era when slavery and colonization were a direct extension of the “t’was ever thus” of history. To fault them for their failures to live by our current standards (by which they fail miserably) is to miss the point.

So too is praising them for their idealism and vision. Though many were Christians, they knew better than to bring that kind of blind-faith optimism to the crafting of our city on the hill.

Their true genius was in expecting of humankind what humankind inevitably delivers, corruption, backsliding and backlashes, the opposite of the dream of woke enlightenment in which everybody finally sees the light, realizing the truth of love, kindness, generosity, justice and liberty for all. Our founding fathers were cynics, not romanticizers of human nature. Continue reading.