Today we celebrate 250 years of democracy in the United States of America. We remain united in many ways, and we still call ourselves Americans. We today are charged to hold onto and strengthen those self-evident truths of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” and make them a reality to all Americans.
We reject recent essays that claim we’re teaching our kids to be ashamed of America, and we’ve got to somehow come up with a partisan elixir for our sickness. Texas has begun mandating specific texts to school children that call for a kind of patriotic indoctrination that should be unsettling to all who understand the declaration.
Accepting failures and working, debating and rallying to rectify them make America a strong democracy. In fact, such false premises and allegiance to a modern-day king will be our downfall if we are not vigilant to recognize the lamps of warning like our founders did in the streets of Boston.
In the spirit of reconciling the declaration with our modern democracy, we offer these historical comparisons with the intent of rejuvenating the American spirit for what we have accomplished and what remains to be done.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
We’ve struggled from the beginning to live up to “all men are created equal” as it didn’t apply to Blacks, enslaved people, Native Americans and women.
But the new leaders of the democratic experiment found their way to passing the 14th Amendment to guarantee freedom to enslaved people and others who were then protected by law. Still there was work to be done.
Decades later Black Americans had to take to the streets, enduring beatings by so called enforcers of the law, to gain their voting rights and protections against discrimination. Today the challenge remains. Some of the laws and rights aimed at protecting against undue discrimination have been weakened by courts, the executive and some in Congress who with enabling partisan media have made diversity a dirty word.
The people should be at the pinnacle of power in a democratic government, as the declaration notes:
“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”
Today we see the “consent of the governed” doesn’t always rule. The American people by large majorities, sometimes up to 70% or 80%, stand for things like restrictions on assault weapons or background checks, opposition to cutting Medicaid and a balanced budget. Yet Congress does not respond.
Congress acted in accordance with public opinion only 55% of the time in a 20-year study by the Yale Institution of Social Policy Studies. And one can wonder how the founders might assess how the current practices of racial gerrymandering match up with the “consent of the governed.”
The declaration also set out a list of grievances.
King George III ignored laws for the public good, setting up obstacles to legislators to “fatigue them into compliance,” stopping elections or otherwise thwarting them and using British troops to carry out his personal agenda.
President Donald Trump sent the military to Los Angeles, appointed his personal lawyer as attorney general and filed numerous executive orders to restrict voting along with calling into question U.S. elections, thereby eroding confidence in them.
The signers said the king was preventing the population from growing by restricting immigration, “obstructed the Administration of Justice,” and “erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”
Of course, restricting immigration was Trump’s largest undertaking, and by recent counts some 3 million have either been deported or self-deported. When it comes to “administration of justice” we know the Trump Department of Justice has ignored hundreds of court orders and federal judges have filed contempt cases against them.
“New offices” would include the expansion of ICE from a $12 billion agency in 2024 to one with 50,000 new officers and a congressional approved $85 billion budget in 2025. There’s no small amount of video to show the ICE “harassment” the founders referenced long ago.
The list of 27 grievances included requirements to house armed British soldiers and “for protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States.” Today we have the unpunished killings of citizen protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti, whose cases remain dormant.
The declaration charged the king with “cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world,” and “imposing taxes without our consent,” and “depriving us in many cases the benefits of trial by jury.” Again, the comparisons of Trump’s unilateral imposition of tariffs and sending people like Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a prison without a hearing resound as striking parallels.
For the first time in 250 years, the courts have made clear the president is above the law with the 2024 Supreme Court ruling the president can’t be prosecuted for actions in the line of their duties.
The new King Donald has been on record saying he “can do anything I want” with no deference to other branches of government that by the Constitution stand as checks and balances. The emperor has no clothes, and he seems to relish in it.
While the challenges to equality have rarely been greater, there’s still much to be thankful for. Of all the challenges to “all men are created equal,” the American people, through their representatives, have made gains in civil rights, discrimination, rights for a fair trial and rights for free and fair elections. We applaud Republicans who in growing numbers are standing for country instead of party and have begun openly opposing the president in support of the declaration and the Constitution.
In the end, we must hold these ‘self-evident truths“ in our hands and grip them tight and take inspiration from the founders’ charge to protect and preserve our independence.
“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”