Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

A consequence of cucumbers

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

The willow is too close to the house.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

I really should read my own blog.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

You are here: Home / Politics / America / We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,

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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.

Reader Interactions

46Comments

  2. 2.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    “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,

    Fascist Order of Police: “We find that to be a very negative, anti-police message. We request that all schools stop teaching our children about the cultural Marxist written Declaration of Independence. We must secure the future for the white race and our children. Sieg Hail.”

  3. 3.

    HeleninEire

    One of the best scenes in the West Wing was when Bartlett recited the first line and then said. (Paraphrasing) “When those words were written mankind was 6,000 years old. Up until then it had never occurred to anyone to write those words down.”

    Whenever someone here throws America’s sins in my face, I throw that right back. I tell them America will survive because of those words.

  4. 4.

    Gbbalto

    Only the 2nd parchment copy of the Declaration found in Chichester:
    On bbc, cannot link on phone

  5. 5.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @HeleninEire:
    Uh.. humanity is significantly older than 6,000 years old. Did he mean human civilization instead?

  6. 6.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Richard M. Nixon @ dick_nixon
    Remember, too, what might be the most significant and radical act in drafting the Declaration: Jefferson wrote “sacred and undeniable.” Franklin forced him to make it “self-evident,” because “sacred” had the whiff of the church.

  8. 8.

    dm

    The opening of the Declaration of Independence was part of the platform of the Black Panther Party.

    It was also part of Ho Chi Minh’s letter to the United States asking us to support Vietnamese independence from the French at the end of World War II.

  10. 10.

    cmorenc

    Y’know, we’re starting to sound like a funhouse-mirror version of the far right tea party wrt our attitude about how unacceptably tyrannical our government has become. Only with real cause for thinking that way, not some gun-humping glibertarian racist bullshit.

  14. 14.

    J R in WV

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:

    @HeleninEire:
    Uh.. humanity is significantly older than 6,000 years old. Did he mean human civilization instead?

    Goku, she said it was West Wing, which is fiction!! As in not literally true!!!! Also totally missing the point she so successfully made.

    And Fiction, what part of fiction do you not understand?

    ETA: Adam, great idea for a way to keep us out of trouble and indoors on a day much too hot to spend much time outdoors!

    The founding document !!!

  15. 15.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @HeleninEire:
    If your point was this:

    Whenever someone here throws America’s sins in my face, I throw that right back. I tell them America will survive because of those words.

    Then I agree. It’s just the “mankind is 6,000 years old”, is really wrong.

  20. 20.

    germy

    “How is it we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?”
    – Samuel Johnson

  21. 21.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @J R in WV:
    I understand what fiction is. That doesn’t make saying factually inaccurate stuff as if it’s fact in a semi-realistic setting okay. It spreads misinformation.

    I still appreciate her point though.

  24. 24.

    germy

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Six thousand years of recorded history? I thought he was referring to the written word in his quote, not early hunter gatherers or farmers.

    Early civilizations may have organized around fairness and equality, but they left no written record. Which to a writer like Sorkin is the most important thing.

  26. 26.

    satby

    Absolutely, let’s all follow Goku down the path of irrelevant sidebars, instead of contemplating the current state of things and our aspirational founding document.

  27. 27.

    sukabi

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: The West Wing is a tv show, a fictionalized version of a presidential administration. They’ve pulled some of the nonsense that evangelicals believe, ie mankind is 6000 years old, into their dialogues to make it “more believable”.

    Just imagine the damage they’d do if they inserted single lines of the Declaration of Independence into the dialogue.

  28. 28.

    germy

    @satby: I thought irrelevant sidebars were our mission statement?

    Aspirational is the right word for our founding document. We’re making progress. Even though we backslide (#43 and #45) I hope the progress continues.

    What makes me most optimistic are the Parkland students registering their peers to vote.

  29. 29.

    raven

    The Crisis
    by Thomas Paine
    December 23, 1776
    THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.

  34. 34.

    germy

    Couple critically ill after exposure to ‘unknown substance’ near British town where Russian spy poisoned

    Police declared a “major incident” near Salisbury, England, after a man and woman in their 40s were found unconscious over the weekend.

  37. 37.

    smintheus

    Didn’t Trump want to hold a huge military parade on July 4th? Nothing came of it; why is Trump so unpatriotic?

  40. 40.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @raven:

    The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country

    Yup yup yup.

  41. 41.

    AnotherBruce

    @germy: That’s what I thought too. The reference to the written word. But it was a bit confusing.

  42. 42.

    Ian

    My dearest Hellen,

    After three hard days fighting the cursed Redhats broke through our lines. We had thought to make a hard fought stand by the community Whole Foods, but a sale on organic Kale laid our best plans to wither.

    Our solar and wind powered robots gave us some protection, but then a cloud came and we were overrun by the superior Murikan gas and coal powered robots. We hear rumour from the heartlands that even with all the extra coal being used against us that the Redhats in that area still cannot find coal jobs. Surely this has been the major topic in your reading at home, I must hope.

    Since then our forces have divided into two camps. The holdouts of the Bernie bros have fortified the Arugula isle, We sent them an email several hours ago to verify if they still held firm. This seemed to rile them up, as they began to chant “EMAILS, EMAILS!” The cry was taken up by the Redhats, and since then we have had no organic mustard to appease our sore bodies.

    I fear that the time has come, Hellen, to flee, if you do not wish to be a handmaiden of Gilead. Even as we huddle in our corner of the vegan pet food aisle, we hear rumour of a new and powerful judiciary, one that will “MAGA” or whatever that means. Embedded in this letter are secret instructions to the Pizzeria where you can hide. You will find all the supplies on the bus we used to use to haul illegal immigrants to voting booths. Good luck and may the Vegan Wicca Goddess protect you. With love, your dearest.

  43. 43.

    frosty

    @SiubhanDuinne: Even worse, it’s set for the centennial of Armistice Day. It couldn’t possibly be more tone deaf than to have a military parade 100 years after soldiers laid down their arms and ended the Great War.

  44. 44.

    Calouste

    @germy: Yeah, that quote from the Declaration of Independence that is the title of this post is the biggest lie in American history. Or the people who signed off on it were such massive racists that they didn’t consider Africans humans.

  45. 45.

    J R in WV

    @Calouste:

    Or the people who signed off on it were such massive racists that they didn’t consider Africans humans.

    That, right there. They were beasts of burden, profit making tools, cared for just as a good working mare or ox. Only also raped, which I doubt most working animals were, even in the CSA.

  46. 46.

    James R Lindley

    What the phrase All men are created equal means is for us to define.

    When the men of a certain age and culture wrote that all men were created equal, what they meant were all white men possessing a certain amount of property and a certain level of literacy.

    Another generation in another time and culture redefined all men to include all black and white men possessing a certain amount of property and a certain level of literacy.

    Yet another generation defined all men to mean that all men and women possessing a certain amount of property and a certain level of literacy were equal.

    In my lifetime and generation we redefined all men to include all men and women regardless of how much property they owned or their level of literacy.

    Today’s generation is redefining all men as all human beings, regardless of their color or sexuality.

    The lie at the heart of the political fraud of originalism is that all generations are bound by a preceding one.

    But every generation has the right to redefine the politics that they will make manifest in the government they create.

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