My first part in this series of posts was a love song to the kind of Fourth of July celebration we had when I was a kid. And that was fun to think about and write. But the heart of this exercise was a thought I had about the underlying reason for the holiday. All of this crap about Juneteenth being Independence Day got me thinking about the document that declared our independence.
I know it’s old fashioned to still think about a country that’s founded on the cause of equality. After all, equality or as it is now called equity is the cudgel that the Left uses to deprive us of our rights. And it is very fashionable on the Dissident Right to condemn all things associated with Enlightenment political thought. So be it, I’m a reactionary.
But when I look at the text of the Declaration, I see that it was a list of grievances that free men were making against their government and a statement that they weren’t going to take it any longer. And the more I read into it the closer and closer is the analogy to the situation we currently find ourselves in. Let’s look at it.
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.
If we decided to end our association with the Blue States, I think I would be very hard put to find better words than those found in the introduction to the declaration. I’d borrow the whole thing.
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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
Other than the use of the words, “colonies” and “King of Great Britain” this section of the document, called the preamble, is also almost word for word the best thing that could be written to describe why we would want to escape from the clutches of the Left. Who could hope to write a better justification than this, “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.”? It’s perfect. We are being deprived of the things that make life worth living. We are treated as criminals and third-class citizens in our own country and we are tired of it.
I’ll pick a few of the grievances the colonists listed to show a little of the similarities to today’s grievances. Obviously not everything jibes in this list because we are not in a sparsely inhabited wilderness.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
(In our case this would equate to allowing Antifa and BLM to burn, loot and murder our neighbors)
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
(In our case this would be weaponizing the FBI and Justice Department to prosecute us for trumped up charges.)
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
(Nothing needs to be changed on this one)
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
(Nothing needs to be changed on this one.)
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
(Ask the guys who are rotting in jail whose only crime was being in Washington D.C. on January 6th.)
And the conclusion:
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — 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.
Once again, switch out words for Great Britain and British Crown and decide what the new country will be called and you can use the whole darn thing.
What I think I want to show with this analysis is the reasonableness of wanting to escape from the Left. The parallels with 1776 are obvious. All the same natural conditions exist for rebellion. They are reducing us to serfs and we’re not used to such an existence. We know what it is to be free and we want freedom back.
What isn’t equivalent is the level of difficulty in escaping from our masters. George III was a peevish nobleman across what was then a very wide ocean. We are trapped in a barrel with a badger. We can’t run and we can’t hide.
In the third installment I’ll talk about what our quest for freedom could look like.