Commentary Maintaining the republic is a balancing act. This doesn’t mean the scales never tip in one direction. America has experienced the tipping of the scales on countless occasions. Our republic, however, maintains its balance for one reason: you. You were precisely the person the Founding Fathers were thinking about when they met in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. If you look through our history, from George Washington onward, you will notice the to and fro between parties. It happened even as early as our second president, John Adams, who was rather soundly defeated by Thomas Jefferson, after just one term. The people didn’t approve. When the architects of the republic deliberated on the construction of what would hold her together―the Constitution―they understood that you couldn’t be trusted, but also that you could be trusted. They possessed a healthy distrust for their fellow man―past, present, and future. If you …