By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Over the life of this blog I have occasionally invoked the words of someone I consider to be one of the 20th century’s more underrated statesmen.

President Gerald Ford took office on Aug. 9, 1974 at the end of what at the time was thought to be the nation’s worst constitutional crisis. President Richard Nixon had resigned in the wake of the Watergate scandal and coverup.

President Ford took his oath of office and declared, “Our Constitution works.” Yes! It most certainly did then. It does now.

We are watching another crisis unfold before our eyes. I am going to stand foursquare behind the nobility of our nation’s founding governing document. It is working now. It will see us through this horrifying mess.

Donald Trump is 11 days from exiting the presidency. He incited a riot this week that could have resulted in the destruction of our democratic form of government. Five people died in the melee on Capitol Hill, which is where Congress was gathering in real time to perform a constitutional duty: ratification of the Electoral College vote that declared Joe Biden and Kamala Harris president and vice president of the United States.

Trump would not accept the voters’ verdict. He egged on the mob gathered before him to in effect storm the Capitol and stop the ratification. The rioters ransacked the Capitol Building. They occupied offices. They pranced through the Senate and House chambers while our elected representatives were holed up in safe places to avoid being harmed by the insurrectionists. Five people, including a D.C. police officer, died in the mayhem.

Our Constitution will work yet again. The House is considering whether to impeach Donald Trump once again. Pressure is mounting on the Cabinet and Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the Constitution’s 25th Amendment, which allows for the removal of a president who is incapable of doing his job.

Donald Trump is incapable of doing a job for which he is patently and demonstrably unfit.

And in just 11 days, Donald Trump — one way or another — will be gone from that office. President Biden and Vice President Harris will take over. The task of rebuilding and repairing our government will commence. It will take time and patience to restore order to this government of ours, which is both fragile and sturdy all at once.

President Ford stated it with profound wisdom in that earlier dark time in our history.

Our Constitution works.