Like yours, my Thanksgiving thoughts usually drift toward family, friends, good health. This year, however, I express thanks to our founders. For creating our constitution. What inspired that gratitude was our recent election.

The founders created a machine by which we would govern ourselves. They designed it to prevent excesses. They feared that too much power might fall into the hands of the President. Or the Congress. Or the Supreme Court. Or to all of them, to the detriment of the People.

And so they included gears to slow some processes. They built brakes into it. They added a clutch or two. They included devices to curtail speed that might harm the machine.

Our recent election displayed the wisdom of those founders. Clearly huge numbers of citizens were unhappy with the government of late. On issue after issue government policies reflected views held by only a minority of Americans.

This has been a problem from the first-ever government to today’s. In so many nations this has led to revolution. (Off with the king’s head!) And if not to revolution, at least to misery. (Attention. Attention. The king has survived. He suggests that you return to your wretched existence. Whilst you still have one.)