Has American citizens “kept the republic”?

Question

Have American citizens "kept the republic?" Franklin's famous phrase that the United States was "a Republic, Madam, if you can keep it" suggests that citizens have a key role in sustaining American democracy. Would Franklin argue that we have succeeded in this effort? Why or why not? 

Answer 1

At the age of 81, Ben Franklin was there at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. While there, he voiced his concerns regarding the difficult question of how to establish the perfect Republic. He spoke of how there was absolutely no way to have perfect representation because each person of an assembly would bring their combined knowledge, prejudices, interests, passions, unknowingness, and their own subjective views. To have as close as we can to a perfect republic, it would be safe to assume that he is referring to how it is up to the people to pick their representatives wisely.

Then, apparently, as Ben Franklin was walking out of the convention, a bystander asked whether or not they had decided to establish a monarchy or a republic. Franklin brilliantly responds, "A republic...if you can keep it". Whether or not we as the masses have succeeded in picking the perfect candidates to represent our government's voices can never be answered, but Ben Franklin expected this. He knew that it would never be perfect. By his logic, the more accurate the representation, the closer we can get to a republic's best version. We are always on the quest for a perfect republic, but we can never reach it, at least according to Ben Franklin.