Benjamin Franklin reportedly said the founders had given us, “A republic, if you can keep it.” The founders divided power among three branches that check one another, and again between the nation and the states. We have a compound republic: united for what a great nation must do together, and free, as states, communities, and families, to govern the rest closer to home. This diffusion of power fosters the sometimes heated competition of ideas that has made us great while guaranteeing our freedom. As Madison put it:

Hence a double security arises to the rights of the people.… The society itself will be broken into so many parts, interests, and classes of citizens, that the rights of individuals, or of the minority, will be in little danger from interested combinations of the majority. – James Madison, Federalist No. 51

That friction, and the frustration that can come with it, is not a flaw in the system. It is the system. It is how free people keep any one faction from running the table. Washington saw the threat clearly when he warned that political parties could become: potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government. – George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796

He wasn’t warning against disagreement. He was warning against factions using their grip on power to replace voter judgment with top-down dictates to eliminate debate and dissent. Parties are tools for serving the country. They were never meant to be masters.

Unity has never meant uniformity. The Constitution itself was a bundle of hard-won compromises, and lasting law still works that way. It takes compromise to reach consensus, and that is the heart of a representative republic. We argue, we negotiate, we find the ground we can hold together, and we don’t burn down government institutions when we don’t get our way.

I’ve taken one oath again and again, to support and defend the Constitution, first at seventeen at West Point, and most recently administering it to my son. That oath is to the Constitution, not to a party, an organization, or any individual. It is why the rule of law and our institutions must be protected, not bent toward whoever holds power.

Structure matters more than politics. Representative government means putting the Constitution and constituents ahead of any party. The founders handed us a republic, and each generation must defend it.

Happy Independence Day! It is an honor to serve you.