Impeachment: Thank you very much, Ben Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was one of America’s most respected and talented early-day Renaissance men.

Born into a working-class household in Boston in 1706, Franklin moved to Philadelphia at 17. And by dint of hard work and honing his natural skills, he became an accomplished printer, publisher and writer, as well as notable scientist, inventor and diplomat.

But what made the world write Franklin’s name into its history books? Two novel experiments.

The first involved flying a kite in a thunderstorm in 1752. Who hasn’t heard this story?

Fast forward 35 years, and even more audacious at age 81, Franklin helped create the U.S. Constitution, legal bedrock of our new republic, at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787. We call this The American Experiment.

But savvy Franklin feared we might some day elect a president who thought he was above all laws. So he insisted upon what I call a lightning-like impeachment insertion – touch it and poof! You’re political toast – into this most sacred founding document.

This Thanksgiving I’m duly remembering dear old Ben for so daringly kiting a lightning-like impeachment law within our Constitution.

This story was originally published November 29, 2019 at 4:21 PM with the headline "Impeachment: Thank you very much, Ben Franklin."