Democrat senator tries to use Benjamin Franklin to push her narrative about Jan. 6, but it goes horribly wrong

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) was forced to delete a social media post over the weekend after misquoting Benjamin Franklin to promote her narrative about Jan. 6.

On the third anniversary of the Capitol riots, Shaheen urged her followers to remember the "insurrectionists" who she claimed "put our democracy in jeopardy." And then she tried to quote Franklin.

"'A democracy, if you can keep it,' said Ben Franklin," Shaheen continued. "January 6, 2021, was a stark reminder of just how fragile our democracy is. It is on each and every one of us to never forget the actions that led to that day so we ensure history does not repeat itself."

But the problem is Benjamin Franklin did not say, "A democracy, if you can keep it."

Upon the adjournment of the Constitutional Convention in September 1787, a woman named Elizabeth Willing Powel inquired of Franklin what type of government the founding fathers had established.

"Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" Powel asked.

"A republic — if you can keep it," Franklin responded.

The quote was recorded by James McHenry, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention from Maryland.

Although the form of government the founding fathers established is a type of democracy, the differences between our constitutional republic and a pure democracy are not insignificant.

Jay Cost, a scholar of American history and government, explains:

Our system is republican in that the Founders understood that the public is the only legitimate sovereign of government. But it is not wholly democratic, in that they feared the abuse of that authority by the people and designed an instrument of government intended to keep temporary, imprudent, and intemperate outbursts of public opinion from dominating the body politic.
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This is a republican system of government, because there is no point at which a self-appointed or hereditary sovereign can hope to retain power against durable public opposition. Everything flows, ultimately, from the people. But “ultimately” is the key word in that sentence. The people rule, but often not directly. The system is republican, but not entirely democratic.

Shaheen later deleted her social media post, but she did not acknowledge her embarrassing — and telling — error.

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