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When Benjamin Franklin walked out of the Constitutional Convention and was asked what kind of government the founders had given the country, his answer was famously conditional: "A republic, if you can keep it." Florida Governor Ron DeSantis took up that same sentiment today at Ave Maria University's Commencement exercises, where he addressed more than 340 graduates and was awarded an honorary degree.
The Governor opened by praising the University's distinctive campus culture and its refusal to follow ideological trends. "You are not being swept up in the spirit of the age," he told graduates. "You have a university that regards faith and reason as complementary, and that's to provide a lens through which we can find the truth."
From there, he turned to St. Paul's charge to Timothy to "guard the deposit entrusted to you," and argued that truth—whether theological or civic—does not sustain itself. Faith, he reminded the audience, has outlasted the Roman Empire, the barbarian invasions, Enlightenment skepticism, and modern totalitarian regimes, not because it was popular but because it was objectively true. "Truth is not subject to a popular vote," he said, "and it doesn't follow popular facts. The Church's role is to shape the times through faith, not to exchange these timeless truths for temporary relevance. North is still north. Right is still right, even when you have to stand all by yourself."
That same conviction, he argued, lies at the heart of the American experiment. Some 250 ago, 56 men risked their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to put their names on the Declaration of Independence—knowing, he reminded graduates, that signing meant either success or death. "That is not the equivalent of just popping off on social media." The founders had studied every previous republic in human history and found a single common thread: all of them had failed. The American experiment was meant to answer once and for all whether a self-governing people, living under the rule of law and acknowledging rights given by God rather than government, was even possible.
DeSantis argued that the principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are enduring precisely because they are true, rooted in an accurate account of human nature and the God-given origin of rights. Invoking George Washington's phrase, he called on graduates to preserve "the sacred fire of liberty," and he traced that flame through the signing of the Declaration, Lincoln's address at Gettysburg, the Allied landings at Normandy, and Reagan's challenge at the Berlin Wall. That flame, he cautioned, "does not run on autopilot. It requires every generation of Americans to step up and defend freedom when it is at risk."
Turning to the world the graduates are entering, DeSantis warned against being "governed by the almighty algorithm." Information overload and artificial intelligence, he said, can serve truth or obscure it; technology must "enhance the human experience, not supplant the human experience," a conviction he said flows naturally from the Catholic understanding of human dignity that AMU graduates carry with them.
He closed by returning to Franklin's challenge. "With faithful and civic-minded graduates like we honor today, who have a great foundation and are wearing the full armor of God," he said, "the answer to Franklin's question is: yes, we can keep the republic—and yes, we will keep the republic."
To listen to Governor Ron DeSantis' full Commencement speech, click here.
