Happy Independence Day—Will this one be our last?

Two hun­dred and forty-nine years ago today, some 56 brave patri­ots rep­re­sent­ing 13 colonies of Great Britain in North America took a risky stand and put their sig­na­tures on a doc­u­ment declar­ing their inde­pen­dence from the King, rec­og­niz­ing that they had pledged to each oth­er “our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

The Declaration of Independence begins with these words that most of us mem­o­rized in school:

The unan­i­mous Declaration of the thir­teen unit­ed States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes nec­es­sary for one peo­ple to dis­solve the polit­i­cal bands which have con­nect­ed them with anoth­er, and to assume among the pow­ers of the earth, the sep­a­rate and equal sta­tion to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God enti­tle them, a decent respect to the opin­ions of mankind requires that they should declare the caus­es which impel them to the separation. . . 

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.–That to secure these rights, Governments are insti­tut­ed among Men, deriv­ing their just pow­ers from the con­sent of the gov­erned, –That when­ev­er any Form of Government becomes destruc­tive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abol­ish it, and to insti­tute new Government, lay­ing its foun­da­tion on such prin­ci­ples and orga­niz­ing its pow­ers in such form, as to them shall seem most like­ly to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Later in the doc­u­ment, these found­ing fathers laid out in explic­it detail each of the griev­ances they held against King George III. I found it quite inter­est­ing to peruse this list again. Here are a few of them. Do any of these con­tain a haunt­ing echo for you, as they do for me?

“He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most whole­some and nec­es­sary for the pub­lic good.

“He has for­bid­den his Governors to pass Laws of imme­di­ate and press­ing importance. . .

“He has endeav­oured to pre­vent the pop­u­la­tion of these States; for that pur­pose obstruct­ing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refus­ing to pass oth­ers to encour­age their migra­tions hither. . . 

“He has obstruct­ed the Administration of Justice, by refus­ing his Assent to Laws for estab­lish­ing Judiciary powers.

“He has made Judges depen­dent on his Will alone. . .

“He has erect­ed a mul­ti­tude of New Offices, and sent hith­er swarms of Officers to har­rass our people. . .

“He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies with­out the Consent of our legislatures.

“He has affect­ed to ren­der the Military inde­pen­dent of and supe­ri­or to the Civil power.

“For cut­ting off our Trade with all parts of the world

“For depriv­ing us in many cas­es, of the ben­e­fits of Trial by Jury

“He has excit­ed domes­tic insur­rec­tions amongst us. . .”

Of course, the sit­u­a­tion was dif­fer­ent two and a half cen­turies ago regard­ing the rela­tion­ship between the colonies and England. Today, we are cit­i­zens of a repub­lic com­prised of 50 states and oth­er juris­dic­tions under a con­sti­tu­tion that, for near­ly all of the ensu­ing cen­turies, has con­strained the President of the United States from such abhor­rent acts as these.

It is embed­ded in the DNA of this nation: we were born out of a fierce desire to self-gov­ern, to be free of the shack­les of a ruth­less auto­crat, and to enjoy a sta­ble, well-func­tion­ing government. 

However, yes­ter­day we saw yet anoth­er instance of the cur­rent occu­pant of the White House act­ing more like a monarch than an elect­ed exec­u­tive. Make no mis­take, our frag­ile demo­c­ra­t­ic sys­tem is in grave per­il. The pas­sage by the House of Representatives of the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” not only does grave harm to the peo­ple of the US, but it is also not “rep­re­sen­ta­tive” of the will of the major­i­ty of Americans, most of whom don’t even know what its pro­vi­sions are. 

Many House and Senate Republicans are aware of this. Many have said so pub­licly. Several made pathet­i­cal­ly weak objec­tions before acced­ing. Only two House Republicans and three Senate Republicans vot­ed no on the measure. 

When leg­is­la­tors and judges make deci­sions con­trary to their own con­science and the will of their con­stituents in a shame­less attempt to gain or main­tain the favor of their “king;”

When the world sees our gov­ern­ment sway­ing with the wind, revers­ing course almost dai­ly on essen­tial mat­ters of trade, immi­gra­tion, and nation­al security; 

When the pres­i­dent and his fam­i­ly use the office of the pres­i­den­cy for their own finan­cial gain; 

When the pres­i­dent con­stant­ly ignores our laws and our con­sti­tu­tion, and dares any­one to chal­lenge him; 

When the rul­ing par­ty and its adher­ents show cal­lous dis­re­gard for the health and safe­ty of the most vul­ner­a­ble among us; 

When all these and more are hap­pen­ing dai­ly, we are on the brink of let­ting the pow­er of the peo­ple slip away forever.

I believe this great nation is fac­ing its gravest exis­ten­tial threat since the Civil War. What hap­pens over the next 18 months will be reveal­ing. Will we main­tain the sta­tus quo and watch our nation slip fur­ther into the realm of authoritarianism?

Or will we, on November 3, 2026, in the year of America’s Semiquincentennial, go to the polls and sign our own dec­la­ra­tion of inde­pen­dence from tyran­ny, oppres­sion, dis­crim­i­na­tion, and graft—just as those brave 56 men did all those 25 decades ago?