July 4, 2018
“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 those 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 abolish it….” (Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776).
Today, on the anniversary of the signature of that Declaration, it would serve us well to pause, reflect on those words and consider where our nation finds itself 242 years later. We must remember that the purpose of government is to ensure the common welfare, not to enrich those in government at the expense of the governed. It is to ensure our pursuit of happiness, not to indulge their sadistic impulses to thwart that pursuit. It is to fight for liberty for all, not to cruelly and capriciously deprive Latinx people of theirs. It is to protect all of our lives, not to empower agents of the state to violently deprive Black and indigenous people of theirs.
Can anyone honestly vouch for the legitimacy of a government that so thoroughly abdicates its responsibilities, that so flagrantly violates both the letter and the spirit of the law? Can anyone honestly point to any evidence that any member of this administration is remotely concerned with the life, liberty or pursuit of happiness of the American people?
Trump’s abuses of power are eerily reminiscent of the grievances enumerated by our founding fathers in their Declaration. Like King George, Trump has “refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good,” by attacking and undermining the Affordable Care Act. Trump has “obstructed the Administration of Justice,” by attacking our intelligence agencies and cut “off our Trade with all parts of the world” through his unilateral instigation of a trade war with our longstanding allies. In truth, Trump is as capricious and despotic as the syphilitic monarch whose yoke we threw off more than two centuries ago.
Those who support, or even tolerate,Trump’s misrule have a narrow and anachronistic definition of who the “we” is in “We the People.” Whether they are Freedom Caucus legislators or strict constructionist judges, at base, they believe that “We” should be limited as it was in 1776 to straight, white, Christian men. The truth is that we can no sooner revert to that cramped, exclusionary definition than we can go back to using leeches to treat tonsillitis. Today, on the anniversary of our nation’s founding, let us declare our independence from those who would define “We the People” to exclude the indigenous people from whom this land was stolen, or the descendants of the enslaved Africans whose stolen labor built this country, or the successive waves of immigrants who enriched this country with their industry and their culture, from the Irish and Italians in the 19th Century to the Central Americans in the 21st. Remember, governments derive their power from the consent of the governed. Anyone in office who doesn’t work for the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness of all, forfeits that consent. Happy Independence Day!!
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#Bluewave
#ITooSingAmerica