My last letter offered some thoughts about the noble principles of our Founders and provided contrasting examples of how the Obama administration is, by its actions, dishonoring those principles and disrespecting the American people.

Examples are abundant; some more follow. We were told that discriminatory IRS treatment of conservative organizations was because of a few “rogue agents” in Cincinnati. As the truth emerged, the story became more sinister. Testifying before Congress, Lois Lerner of the IRS denied that anything illegal had occurred, but then invoked the 5th Amendment (avoiding self-incrimination).

In February 2014, President Obama downplayed any IRS misbehavior, declaring that there was “not even a smidgen of corruption.” As months passed, and all subpoenaed documents weren’t provided to Congress, we learned that Lerner’s hard drive “crashed.” Curiously, all her e-mails to the White House are gone. Unbelievable!

In 2013, former DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano told us that the border is as “secure as it’s ever been,” and presidential spokesman Jay Carney agreed that, “Our borders now are more secure than they have ever been in history.” Recent news from our southern border quite clearly confirms what most of us have known for years, that our borders are not secure. This is a direct consequence of the Obama administration failing to make any attempt at reasonable enforcement of immigration law, despite the president’s constitutional obligation to enforce the law.

In 1787, Benjamin Franklin was asked by Mrs. Powell, “What have you given us, Dr. Franklin?” Franklin answered, “A republic, if you can keep it.” He was speaking to Mrs. Powell, but he was in essence speaking to all of us, giving a prescient warning about what could become of this great experiment in the history of civilization. Now the question is, can we do what is necessary to keep it?