America’s birthday

Today is America’s 249th birthday, and that is cause enough for the usual celebrations and flag-waving with family and friends. But given the current state of our nation, we would hope readers will take a little time on this Fourth of July for some sober reflection on why it was that Americans chose to sever the bonds with England to pursue a new vision for a nation based on the principles of equality, liberty, and the right of all of us to pursue happiness.
In that declaration, signed July 4, 1776, our nation’s founders, in “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind,” laid out the grievances that prompted our separation from the rule of King George III. It’s worth revisiting some of those grievances here. There’s an old saying that history doesn’t repeat itself, but that it often rhymes and that can certainly be argued today under a presidential administration that is acting far outside the usual bounds that Americans have come to expect here in what we like to call “the land of the free.”
The colonists of the 1700s had plentiful experience with the uncertainties of life under authoritarian rule, particularly with an erratic king like George III. They well understood the ways in which their lives could be upended by arbitrary decrees, issued by a king who knew or cared little about the impact of his actions on the lives of his subjects.
The colonists had long bristled under the effects of many of those decrees, such as the imposition of tariffs on basic commodities, like tea, which prompted the much-celebrated Boston Tea Party.
The founders who signed our nation’s divorce from Britain, made note of the king’s decision to keep standing troops among the people, without the consent of local authorities, just as the current president has deployed troops to minor protests in Los Angeles, against the wishes of the governor, mayor, and chief of police.
Likewise, our founders complained that King George III had cut off foreign trade and “excited domestic insurrections amongst us.” The king had “transported us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences,” which is an act the current administration has threatened against those, even U.S. citizens, who object to its policies.
The colonists well understood that with a king, there was no person or aspect of daily life that was off-limits to a capricious decree. Yet, here we are, 250 years later, living in an America with a president who issues almost daily edicts, many of which make little sense, are in direct violation of the Constitution he has sworn to uphold, or are retaliatory in nature directed at individuals or institutions that are beyond the rightful scope of his authority.
On June 14, an estimated five million Americans turned out for the “No Kings” rallies held at more than 2,000 locations nationwide, which is now believed to be the largest single day protest in U.S. history. It was a recognition that many Americans are waking up to the usurpations of power being committed daily by the current president, who likens himself as the American king. Don’t believe it? The White House recently posted on its official website an image of the current president seated with a crown on a throne under the headline “Long live the king.”
We can no longer deny the desire of the current president to Make America Great Again. What some of us perhaps didn’t recognize is that, in his view, American greatness ended the day we threw off the yoke of a monarch.
While signing of the Declaration was, in effect, the day of our nation’s birth, it was the U.S. Constitution, formally enacted in 1788, which laid out the form and structure of the American government and made it clear to the world that we would never again subjugate ourselves to the whims of an autocrat. It was a document that created three co-equal branches of government intended to serve as a check on the powers of each. Our founders’ intent was explicit, to prevent some future demagogue from exploiting the darker impulses of the public in order to seize dictatorial powers, ruling over Americans rather than serving them.
Those are distinctions which the current president fails to recognize. He all but ignores Congress, while his administration simultaneously challenges the right of the courts to serve their legitimate role and function under the Constitution.
As we celebrate the Fourth this year, we must remember that government of, by, and for the people cannot sustain itself without the active work of the citizenry. It’s not enough to wave the flag on Independence Day. The work of sustaining a free nation takes real effort, every day of the year.