“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”

— John Adams, 1814

Democracy was designed to be messy. But the existential warfare of recent decades, where each side aims to destroy the other rather than out-argue it, works like water seeping into cracks in a concrete foundation. The clearest sign of the damage is that trust in federal institutions has fallen to historic lows, and the Constitution's checks and balances no longer seem to work as intended.

The cracks are structural. Over 250 years, ambitious politicians in both parties have found the weak points in our system and turned them into partisan advantage. Fortunately, those weak points can be repaired.

Right the Republic proposes 11 constitutional amendments to repair them. Every one is structural. None addresses abortion, guns, taxes, education or other cultural flashpoints. Those debates belong to voters, and they'll be more constructive once people trust the institutions that host them.

Waiting for better candidates won't work. No candidate or legislative breakthrough can repair the structure itself, and counting on one mistakes hope for judgment. The Constitution is the tool built for this job. It gives citizens the means to redirect Congress, the President and the Supreme Court to serve us better. Yet no amendment drafted by Congress has been ratified since 1971, and we've lost the muscle memory for using it.

Skeptical that anything like this could pass today? That's fair.

But proven tools for getting entrenched political opponents to agree have worked before, starting with the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The book shows how we can relearn to use them.

These proposals are solid first drafts, not silver bullets. They will benefit from critique by people with different experiences. Getting that dialogue started is the primary goal.