"A republic if you can keep it."

- Benjamin Franklin, 1787.

"Welcome to the new Arizona.”

- Janet Napolitano, governor of Arizona, 2003.

Ben Franklin was responding to a question about what kind of government had been created during the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He was announcing the formation of a republic ruled not by men but by laws and warning that keeping that form of government would not be easy.

Gov. Napolitano made her exclamation to a meeting of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials as she vetoed legislation passed in her state that would have required identification to be presented by voters at polls on Election Day and by those seeking government services. Critics of the bill called it “anti-Hispanic.” The governor called it “a thinly disguised effort to suppress minority voting.” She responded to claims made by the bill’s sponsors that the bill was aimed at preventing voter fraud by telling the cheering crowd that, "in Arizona, we want people to vote."

Who are these “minority voters” that concern Gov. Napolitano? Who are the “people” she wants to vote in Arizona? Are they the hundreds of thousands of Mexican citizens who live in her state? The people that the U.S. government correctly refers to as “illegal aliens”? Citizens who express concern at having these “non-citizens” voting and receiving government services are referred to as “racist” and “anti- Mexican.” Can “un-American” be far behind?

The founding fathers recognized that a democracy was bedlam, a dangerous process of majority rule and something to be fearfully avoided. They chose instead a republic, a nation of laws, knowing that a democracy could and would turn into “mobocracy,” then tyranny. But even they were thinking only in the context of a majority of citizen voters and could never have dreamed of the outrageous and shameless pandering by politicians to foreign invaders that is occurring in our country.

A quote from closer to home from Georgia state Sen. Sam Zamarippa in 2000: “Your song may be, "We Shall Overcome.’ Our song is "We shall overwhelm.’"

Zamarippa was explaining how the Hispanic lobby would handle resistance to Hispanic “influence” in our region. He advocates giving illegal aliens drivers’ licenses - “because they are here” and “they are going to drive anyway.” So much for Mr. Franklin’s nation of law, aye, Mr. Zamarippa?

Anyone familiar with the Motor Voter Law must see what is coming. Mr. Zamarippa also pushes for admitting illegal aliens to our already overcrowded state institutions of higher learning, then charging them less in tuition than citizens from other states.

What would Mr. Franklin say?

We have roadblocks to check for seat-belt law compliance, but it’s somehow politically incorrect to enforce our immigration laws? Reward the violators? What?

When U.S. citizens must face the fact that according to the U.S. Census more than 10 million illegal aliens are colonizing our nation and watch as elected officials endorse lawlessness in the name of “the people,” one must wonder if we can, or deserve to, keep the republic for which our Founding Fathers pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.

D.A. King is a Marietta resident and a member of Georgians for Immigration Reform.