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.
Reader Interactions
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Mary G
Happy Birthday, America!
May we fight off the forces of the facism and try and to get closer to the principles of the Declaration.
dmsilev
@Mary G: Also, happy Fall of Vicksburg and Battle of Gettysburg Day.
Of note since we seem to be replaying a bunch of those sectional differences. Not quite as extreme so far and hopefully for the foreseeable future, but definitely there.
Yutsano
@Mary G: Heck at this point I’d take someone just respecting our Constitution.
arrieve
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.
It’s important to remember what we’re fighting for.
AliceBlue
Thank you Adam, for this and for everything you do.
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.
rikyrah
@Mary G: ????
rikyrah
@arrieve:
Yep ???
trollhattan
In honor of our imperfect relationships with this grand experiment
X “4th of July”
And a recent acoustic version by the author, Dave Alvin.
Happy Fourth, jackals. Go out and slap some duct tape and bailing wire on the thing while we endure the current challenges. This too shall pass and we need to keep the thing fuctoning in the meantime.
plato
The female farage.
zhena gogolia
@Raven:
Love that. Thank you.
FlipYrWhig
This part seems hella ironic now:
That tyrant King George isn’t letting us encourage migrants to come here!
Omnes Omnibus
@trollhattan: That song has been part of my Fourth since See How We Are came out.
CCL
I am celebrating the 4th by reading Michelle Obama’s Becoming.
raven
@zhena gogolia: We were Winter Soldiers once. . .
zhena gogolia
@Raven:
LMM’s version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fkGpZ_Ydj4
Dorothy A. Winsor
Sometimes you have to give credit to Joe Biden:
Dorothy A. Winsor
@CCL: Good choice.
jimmiraybob
There certainly were some rascally radicals amongst those founders, framers, ratifiers and assorted peoples going hooray. How many radical liberal ideas of the Enlightenment(s) can you identify in the DOI and Constitution? No wonder they call this the beginning of the Age of Revolution. If only Spinoza could have lived to see the day.
I mean come on, how many governments had specifically grounded their legitimacy in the sovereignty of the people? Unalienable rights of conscience and expression? Limits on the influence of religion on governance? Eliminating arbitrary absolute rule by a prince or king. And our rascals put these ideals in writing. For us. Talk about setting up and grounding a new product line of aspirational goals. No wonder we celebrate the rollout with fireworks. No wonder the Trumpinistas want to shit on the celebration.
trollhattan
@Omnes Omnibus:
+1. My 4th doesn’t get underway until at least one listen. And there are quite a few versions and covers by now.
Dave Alvin has carved out a wonderful second career of rockabilly Americana tunes, for which his gravelly voice and impeccable guitar are perfect.
Hungry Joe
The Fourth should be a day not just of celebrating, but of acknowledging shortcomings and declaring aspirations to fulfill promises of the new country …
… speaking of which: Enough with the “American Experiment” and “This is a very young country” and “When did we lose our innocence?” crapola. The United States is two hundred and forty-plus years old. We’ve been around longer than most. Time to grow the fuck up.
Adam L Silverman
@arrieve: Wait for it… Wait for it…
Adam L Silverman
@Dorothy A. Winsor: He’s a very, very good retail politician in a time period where that is not particularly appreciated because it is inauthentic.
plato
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Great response.
Ben Vernia
Here’s my rewrite of the middle section:
…
The history of the present President 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.
He acquired our highest office of trust by abetting our adversaries to commit crimes against us, and by purchasing the silence of witnesses against him through illegal and undisclosed Bribes.
He has appointed Knaves, Thieves, and Incompetents to sit in his Cabinet and govern over us, and when those were forced to resign under the weight of their infamy, he has erected a multitude of New “Acting” Offices in defiance of our appointment Laws, and has sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has encumbered our Treasury with generations of debt to enrich himself, his partisan cabal, and an Aristocracy alien to our Ideals.
He has abrogated and opposed our Laws for health and environmental protection, the most wholesome and necessary for the public health and welfare.
He has denied his assent to appropriation Laws of immediate and pressing importance, closing the doors of our Government for weeks without regard to our Needs.
He has taken public monies appropriated for lawful purposes and, under the pretext of Emergency, attempted to divert them to petty uses rejected by our Representatives.
He has directed that agencies devoted to the Common Good take direction from those they should govern, financially encumbering our poor, our students, and our elderly.
He has refused to acknowledge, and done nothing to ameliorate, the greatest crisis facing our Globe, ensuring the suffering of countless millions of our Citizens and our Neighbors.
He has enshrined in the policies of our Government an odium for women of which he has boasted throughout his public life, allowing and encouraging Laws oppressive to them.
He has labored to immiserate our LGBTQ Citizens, conspiring throughout our Government to strip them of their rights and dignity.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by acting to terminate an inquest into the conduct of his campaign, by instructing his Aides to lie about his doing so, and by refusing to answer the questions of duly-appointed officers within the legitimate scope of their Investigations.
He has deputized a secretive “Federalist” cabal to exercise the President’s power to nominate Judges, thereby making our judges subject to its Will alone for their offices.
He has turned the sacred power of Pardon, entrusted to a President to be used equitably to mitigate the harshness of our Laws, into a partisan and unjust prize for his political allies.
He and his partisans have conspired to deprive us of our lawful right of Representation, by suppressing our responses to the decennial census of these States, by deceiving our Magistrates when caught, and by ignoring their lawful Orders.
He has affected to render our Military an instrument of him and his partisans, and subject to his will alone.
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, and imposing unlawful conditions of migration and sanctuary:
– For prohibiting the immigration of an entire religion of people, while lying to our judges about his bigotry:
– For terminating the sanctuary from deportation we had extended to innocent and productive youths brought to this country by their parents:
– For seeking to exile from our Nation soldiers who have borne our battles:
– For rudely severing the sacred bonds of father, mother, and child, who have fled strife in their native land and sought Succor on our shores, and then placing each in such confinement as would shock the conscience of any person possessed thereof:
– For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
– For capriciously imposing Tariffs on us without our Consent:
– For giving aid and comfort to his fellow Tyrants and Dictators, including those who have plotted against our Elections, those who have murdered our Residents, and those who devise weapons of War to be used against our People and our Allies.
– For interfering in the democratic Elections of our friends and allies:
– For accepting and encouraging foreign States to bestow upon him myriad emoluments and profits, in violation of our constitution and customs.
He has abdicated his role as head of our Government, by declaring minorities among us and those who oppose him out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our cities, the merciless white supremacists, who commit violence upon us, and who call for the undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions of Persons of Color and of Women.
He has disregarded and disparaged the duty of our Representatives to oversee our Government, and he has flaunted his contempt for their lawful requests, demands, and subpoenas.
He has allowed those who would prey upon our Nation to plunder our seas, ravage our coasts, poison our towns, and destroy the lives of our people.
He has lied about everything upon which he has cast his shallow attention, to distract us from his dereliction of his every duty and to sow division and distrust amongst us.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A President, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
MomSense
@Ben Vernia:
Yes!!!
zhena gogolia
@Ben Vernia:
Send it to Nancy!
Fair Economist
@Ben Vernia: Beautifully done!
Ruckus
@jimmiraybob:
Nice
Like your last 2 sentences.
Ruckus
@Hungry Joe:
Yes. Yes it is.
But I suspect that as I’ve been waiting my entire adult life, half a century, for a very large segment of the population to do just that, I should stop holding my breath for lost causes.
chris
@Ruckus:
Yep. Sorry, it’s going to take a little longer. See this article from Salon (via Raw Story.)
SiubhanDuinne
@Ben Vernia:
My gods, that is brilliant! Please give it wide exposure. Make sure the Democratic leadership in the House gets a copy, as well as your preferred Presidential candidates.
HinTN
@Ben Vernia:
Yowsa, well done!
rikyrah
@Ben Vernia:
You should tweet this out????
J R in WV
@Ben Vernia:
Quoted by reference, and for truth !!!
ETA: Good job, maintains the feel of those days while including the current high crimes in detail. Thanks for your hard work!
stinger
@Ben Vernia: This is outstanding.
Sister Golden Bear
@Ben Vernia: *standing ovation*
Ben Vernia
FYI, I tweeted out my Declaration rewrite. @BenVernia. Happy Fourth! Next year in a democracy!