These days, I am not so sure. When I watch what is happening in Minnesota, I am reminded of the Kent State University shooting in 1970, when 28 National Guard members fired dozens of rounds in about ten seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, in an effort to prevent students from protesting the United States’ expansion into Cambodia in the Vietnam War. While the shooters were acquitted in a bench trial, the trial judge said, “It is vital that state and National Guard officials not regard this decision as authorizing or approving the use of force against demonstrators … such use of force is, and was, deplorable.”

To be clear, I was not alive when Kent State happened, but growing up in the house I did, I learned all about it. My father, who was 17 when that event happened, agreed very strongly with the trial judge that the killing of college students by the government because they were protesting was deplorable. Today, I am watching in real time as the government kills citizens because they are protesting. And I agree. The government is deplorable.

When the government says an American citizen cannot carry his handgun, for which he had a permit, the government is deplorable. When the government calls an American citizen a “domestic terrorist” without due process, that is deplorable. When the government says an American citizen is an “assassin,” that is deplorable. When the national government houses federal forces in a state, killing two of its citizens, the national government is deplorable. When an official of the government posts on the social platform X that a national law enforcement agency is greater than a state, the national government is deplorable.

The thing is, the Founding Fathers predicted this. They knew that the government tends to behave deplorably, which is why they were so worried about a standing army in times of peace. It’s why they built so many checks and balances into our limited government. They understood that when the government decides a citizen is a problem, that is when that citizen is most in need of rights. They knew that a strong central government was a problem in every iteration in history, which is why they argued every state had to have the sovereign power to push back, ensuring even those states that joined the Union later, including Minnesota, would have those same protections.

They wrote a document protecting Americans from this deplorable behavior. The United States Constitution Article IV says, “Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State” and the Tenth Amendment says that powers “are reserved to the States.” That means that the central government cannot send in its own law enforcement officers to run roughshod over local law enforcement. The Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments require due process for citizens who the government has decided are criminals. This means that the government has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a citizen is guilty before it can impose a punishment or announce that a citizen is an assassin. The Second Amendment says that “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.” This means that killing a citizen because he was legally carrying a gun is unconstitutional.

If I could go back in time and talk to my 18-year-old self, who thought it would have been so cool to be 18 in 1970, I would tell her that it is exhausting. When I talk to my 18-year-old child who is living through this year, I tell her I understand her feelings. And given she is my child and my father’s grandchild, smart money says she’ll be at a protest in the not-too-distant future. And I very much pray that the government she runs into remembers that founding document and decides to not behave deplorably.

But most importantly, I remind myself and my family — three generations of American citizens thinking about how the government should behave better — this is the work. The Founders gave us a document, but we have to keep it. We have to demand that our government not run roughshod over our constitutional rights. Our state governments have to demand that our national government stays out of our business. This is exhausting. And this is the work.

Leah Murray is a Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of Political Science and the director of the Olene S. Walker Institute of Politics & Public Service at Weber State University. This commentary is provided through a partnership with Weber State. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent the institutional values or positions of the university.