Our brilliant Founders built our democracy upon two different but complimentary pillars. The first and more obvious pillar is our constitutional system itself, what the writers of the Federalist Papers called the “new science of politics.” Our representative democracy would not be possible without our revolutionary constitution and the laws that uphold it, separation and enumeration of powers, and effective checks and balances.
The second pillar is more difficult to define but just as essential – nationally shared values and a common morality. Our Founders believed the natural expression of th...