Comment by defrost
3 days ago
Benjamin Franklin literally stated it was "good enough for now" (where "now" == hundreds of years past) despite lacking sufficient checks and balances, and would need constant attendance and amending over time until the likes of the Federalists found themselves a Trump to white ant the US from the inside out.
I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other.
~ https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a7s3.html
That speech is bone-chilling. It's so incredibly obvious -- at the risk of going against Franklin's own advice to avoid falling prey to a sense of infallibility -- that the future time he referred to has now come.
also Ben Franklin: "A republic...if you can keep it"
(elipsis mine)