Are we to continue as a nation serious enough to remain the most prosperous and powerful in human history? Or will we shrug our responsibility and descend like Europe toward slothful impotence?

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“A republic, if you can keep it.” 

So said Benjamin Franklin in 1787, responding to a Philadelphia woman’s query as to what form of government the Constitutional Convention had just created. 

How will our contemporary generation respond to Franklin’s ongoing challenge? 

This week, seemingly disparate events formed a mosaic illustrating that dilemma.  Are we to continue as a nation serious enough to remain the most prosperous and powerful in human history?  Or will we shrug our responsibility and descend like Europe toward slothful impotence? 

First, consider Representative Paul Ryan (R – Wisconsin).  Voters often claim to seek political leaders who exhibit leadership, seriousness, intelligence, honesty and sobriety.  Then along comes someone like Congressman Ryan, brimming with each of those traits. 

Despite current budgetary trajectories that will cause catastrophe if nothing is done, entitlement reform is regularly labeled the “third rail” of American politics because anyone who touches it will suffer metaphorical electrocution at the voting booth.  Defying that political wisdom, Rep. Ryan boldly offered a long-term budgetary roadmap that will restore fiscal balance while saving Medicare from self-destruction.  Moreover, he achieves that without affecting anyone currently receiving Medicare.  In fact, his plan doesn’t even affect anyone currently over age 55 and years away from Medicare benefits. 

In response, liberals dishonestly attacked Rep. Ryan with a political ad showing his likeness pushing an elderly woman over a cliff in her wheelchair. 

For its part, the Obama Administration offered nothing.  That means a continuation of the status quo, which itself will lead to Medicare’s fiscal collapse.  Instead, Obama and liberals hope to cruise toward reelection by simply attacking Rep. Ryan’s plan with mindless political ads. 

Whether that shameful tactic can succeed is questionable, but Democrats are encouraged by last month’s special Congressional election in New York’s 26th district. 

Fortunately, Rep. Ryan and his supporters aren’t backing down. 

And this week, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan voiced his support of the Ryan fiscal plan.  In an interview on CNBC, Greenspan stated that, “If I had my own way, I like the Ryan budget in all respects, and I think that essentially that sort of thing is what I would vote for if I were voting.” 

Juxtapose Paul Ryan’s leadership against this week’s most combustible news event, the excruciating spectacle of Representative Anthony Weiner (D – New York). 

The man whose errant tweet spawned a billion puns – “Erections Have Consequences,” “Is Weiner Being Frank?” – might not have surprised Benjamin Franklin in his hubris and malfeasance, even if his technological methods would have been unfamiliar. 

Despite one of the worst political self-immolations in memory, however, Rep. Weiner defiantly vowed to remain in office.  Even more disturbing, a poll by NY1/Marist of New York residents found that 51% believe he should remain in Congress, whereas only 30% of New Yorkers prefer that he depart. 

Think about that.  Although New York doesn’t necessarily represent the nation as a whole, its voters continue to support a man who stalked and sent cringe-worthy photos of himself to women less than half his age, and then brazenly lied to and excoriated reporters before admitting his guilt after Andrew Breitbart forced his hand.  Meanwhile, that state’s voters rejected the New York 26 Congressional candidate arguably on the basis that Democrats successfully tarred her as supporting Rep. Ryan’s debt reduction plan. 

Consider another example provided this week.  A survey by McKinsey & Company found that approximately 30% of American employers will either definitely or probably discontinue health insurance benefits to their employees after ObamaCare takes effect in 2014.  Additionally, of those employers with a “high awareness of the health reform law,” that number increases to 50%. 

Compare that survey reality to the Obama’s solemn promise during the healthcare debate that, “if you have health insurance that you like, then you will be able to keep that insurance.” 

Collectively, this week’s events provided a stark contrast.  On the one hand, a former Fed Chairman came out in favor of the debt reduction roadmap boldly offered at great political risk by Rep. Paul Ryan.  On the other hand, we saw the tenacious determination to cling to political office by a disgraced Rep. Weiner and the evaporation of Obama’s most fundamental promise while selling his transformative ObamaCare plan. 

Seriousness and leadership versus frivolity.  Americans must once again choose.