July 4, 1776: Words that Will Never Be Erased

 

“It is . . . from the perspective of the bloody millennia of mankind's history . . . that I want you to look at the birth of a miracle: the United States of America. If it is ever proper for men to kneel, we should kneel when we read the Declaration of Independence."—Ayn Rand

The Fourth of July is a national holiday that, to me, stands far above all of the others. It represents the greatest political achievement in world history. More than that, the birth of the United States of America represents a towering and unprecedented philosophical achievement. America, born of the Enlightenment, is the first nation founded on the principle that man the individual has a fundamental, inalienable right to his own life, and that government’s responsibility is to protect that right…that the people act by right, while the government acts by permission.

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.

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 to 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.

So opened the document that marked the starting point of the United States of America as a sovereign nation. Above are the most radical words ever written as the foundation for a nation. For the first time in human history, a government was to be the servant of the people, by conscious design and on principle. “The people” were understood to be, not a collective, but a collection of sovereign individuals recognized as possessing unalienable individual rights to his own life, liberty, property, and pursuit of happiness. America was the triumph of reason, which was understood to be a faculty of every individual. The government would now be charged with the task of—not ruling—but protecting every individual’s freedom to act on his own sovereign, reasoning mind … as a matter of unalienable right.

The birth of America was the culmination of Mankind’s long tortuous philosophical journey that began with Aristotle, and continued through his rebirth via Aquinas, the Renaissance, the Age of Reason, and the Enlightenment. Tribalism was to be swept into the dustbin of history, along with “The Divine Right of Kings” and all manner of omnipotent ruler. Men—meaning all people, average people, the “common man”—would be set free from the forcible domination of other men. Every individual would be free—not by permission of some King, cleric, lord, oligopoly, majority, or tribal chief—but by moral right. Rights don’t come from government, the Founders held. Rights precede government; then “to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”—“just powers” being understood to be only those limited powers required to carry out the job of protecting individual rights, not the power to violate rights by redistributing private wealth, regulating our lives, and the like.

The signers of the Declaration of Independence, America’s Founding Fathers, were not conservative in any fundamental sense. They were radicals in the complete and honorable sense: They represented a concept entirely new to mankind. Standing up against the tide of history, with only the winds of the ideas of John Locke and the Enlightenment thinkers at their backs, and reflecting the moral revolution that had taken place in the American mind in the decade prior to 1776, this unique group of intellectuals took action. Indeed, the ideological radicalism of the ideas to which they pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor turned to actual armed rebellion. The rest, as is said, is history.

America’s Founding was flawed in many respects - the failure to eradicate the ancient evil of slavery from American soil until 7 decades after the ratification of the Constitution being the most obvious and most egregious. The anti-slavery forces simply did not have the strength to defeat that vampire at the outset, and so slavery lingered into the young nation. But the moral groundwork had been laid – that all men are created equal – and the fate of the slave states was sealed. 89 years after the signing of the Declaration, America’s Founding ideals caught up with the slave states. Reactionaries have pointed to America’s early history of slavery as proof of its basic depravity—its “Original Sin.” In fact, slavery was a birth defect, inherited from Mankind’s past. In fact, the defeat of slavery represented one of America’s finest hours, and a testament to the formidable power of its ideals. There were other birth defects, most notably the second class status of women. Indeed, those ideals underpinned freedom’s progress in regards to women’s suffrage and property rights, the defeat of Jim Crow segregation laws, the mid-20th Century Civil Rights movement, the end of black voter suppression laws, and marriage equality for gay people.

America’s Founding was the most monumental political achievement in world history. America is currently backsliding from its Founding ideals, heading in the direction of collectivism and statism. But we have the means to reverse that trend, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, which serves as the philosophic blueprint for our Constitution. As Harvey Milk, one of the early leaders in the “Gay Pride” fight for equal rights for gays, said at a 1978 speech,

In the Declaration of Independence it is written 'All men are created equal and they are endowed with certain inalienable rights . . . .' That’s what America is. No matter how hard you try, you cannot erase those words from the Declaration of Independence.

Indeed, the words of July 4, 1776 have been written. Ratified on July 4, signed on August 2, the Declaration of Independence will never be erased. But its ideals can be forgotten, twisted, evaded, or ignored. We can not let that happen. The Fourth of July reminds us that the fight for freedom is a philosophical fight—a long term, never-ending fight—fought not on foreign military battlefields but right here at home, on the intellectual battleground of ideas. Freedom can not be won and secured by the sword. It can only be won by the pen. It’s not enough to merely uphold the U.S. Constitution, either in its original form or in its current allegedly “living” form. We must remember and reassert “The Conscience of the Constitution,” as one scholar called the Declaration of Independence. It is indispensable intellectual ammunition for those of us fighting to establish the fully free society that the Founders envisioned and came close to achieving.

Proof of the moral and practical power and viability of individual liberty is written across the brief span of the past 250 years. The ideas of reason, individualism, and capitalism have been unleashed. The philosophical foundation for an American rebirth has been laid by a Twentieth Century philosopher/novelist whom I call America's Last Founding Father—quoted above—and the final route of statism is tantalizingly close—yet still so far.

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.

By closing out the Declaration with that pledge, those great men of 1776 declared that they would accept no substitute for the ideals in which they believed. As the world watched, they laid it all on the line—their property, their families, their lives—for those ideals. They would succeed or perish. That utterly uncompromising stand gave us the United States of America. The least we could do in honor of these Founding Fathers is to pledge to recommit to and uphold those principles, to roll back the compromises that are undermining them, and to accept no substitute.

Happy Birthday—and long live—the United States of America.

Related Reading:

The Declaration of Independence

Atlas Shrugged: America’s Second Declaration of Independence—Onkar Ghate

On This Constitution Day, Remember the Declaration of Independence

The Conscience of the Constitution: The Declaration of Independence and the Right to Liberty – Timothy Sandefur 

America's Revolutionary Mind: A Moral History of the American Revolution and the Declaration That Defined It - C. Bradley Thompson

Juneteenth, the Offspring of the Fourth of July

 In 1852, amid July 4th celebrations of America's independence, the great American intellectual and Abolitionist Frederick Douglass called on America to live up to the great principles of its Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and abolish slavery within its borders. In June of 1865, America finally did just that.

On June 19th, we celebrate Juneteenth as a National Holiday—and justly so. This is the day that, in June 1865, Union soldiers reached the last enslaved Americans in Galveston, Texas, with the news that slavery had been abolished and that they were now free.

The abolition of slavery, an evil institution that America inherited at its Founding, is a major cause for celebration and among America’s finest hours. The day the last slaves were liberated certainly rises to the level of deserving of a national holiday. But it must be remembered that the principles of the American Founding made possible the end of slavery. If not for the Fourth of July, we’d have no Juneteenth. Professor Jason D. Hill, author of We Have Overcome, aptly calls the abolition of slavery America’s Second Founding.  

By all means, celebrate Juneteenth, also known as Emancipation Day. But put it on a par with Constitution Day, which celebrates the document that Frederick Douglass called “a glorious liberty document.” Like The U.S. Constitution, Juneteenth owes its existence to the Declaration of Independence and the philosophy behind it. 

It’s a damn shame that it took almost a Century for the promises of the Declaration of Independence to reach all Americans of African descent. But it did, finally erasing America’s most glaring birth defect. 

Happy Juneteenth.

Related Reading:

Juneteenth and 'America's Original Sin': What The Seattle Times Gets Right—and Terribly Wrong

If Not for the Fourth of July, We’d Have No Juneteenth.

The ‘1619 Project’ Fraud Begins its Poisonous Infiltration into American Politics

A New Textbook of Americanism — edited by Jonathan Hoenig

QUORA: ‘Why do law schools teach constitutional law but not the Declaration of Independence as an animating principle?’

The 'New American Socialists' Dilemma: The Declaration is as much anti-Socialist as anti-Slavery

Biden Cancels America

On Juneteenth, Let’s Celebrate the Atlases of Abolition by Jon Hersey for The Objective Standard 

Martin Luther King Jr. and the Fundamental Principle of America

WHAT SHALL BE DONE WITH THE SLAVES IF EMANCIPATED? By Frederick Douglass' Monthly, January, 1862

What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? by Frederick Douglass | July 5, 1852

Re: Supreme Court Updates: Justices Further Weaken Voting Rights Act, Igniting Political Scramble by The New York Times

My FaceBook Post

ANOTHER DEFEAT FOR RACISM!!! 

Don’t believe the NYT wording. Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 “prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, color, or membership in one of the language minority groups.” This ruling doesn’t “weaken” or “gut” the Voting Rights Act.

It is consistent with it, and a resounding affirmation of the 14th Amendment. Note that the 3 Liberal justices dissented, saying that the ruling would “systematically dilute minority citizens’ voting power.” In fact, all of the hysteria by Leftists focuses on some similar collectivist tribal argument, as if certain “minority” GROUPS have a privileged entitlement to elect a representative with a particular skin color or ethnicity. It’s a viewpoint straight out of the Dred Scott decision that informed the Confederacy’s defense of its slave system.

But this racist viewpoint is anti-Enlightenment and anti-American. America guarantees an INDIVIDUAL right to vote, not some primitive tribal “right” or “voting power.” The 14th Amendment guarantees EACH CITIZEN equal protection. This ruling affirms the “one-person-one-vote” principle, and nobody’s right to vote is compromised or restricted—in fact, only strengthened. So-called “voting power” rests with individuals, not groups.

The violent Leftist reaction to the ruling also affirms the fundamental racial/collectivist orientation of the Left and the Democratic Party (I deliberately chose the NYT article to demonstrate this). That political block sees every issue through a lens of race. But, MEMO to the Left: dark skinned people are INDIVIDUALS, each with a mind of their own, capable of deciding FOR THEMSELVES how to vote, just like every other person. They are not some homogenous colored herd with some collective brain that they must be told they must follow.

Don’t believe the way most of the press is characterizing this ruling. This decision is a great outcome.

On the Trump/Mamdani 'Lovefest'

 My FB Post:

“For all the hype of a conflict, President Trump and New York City's next mayor, Zohran Mamdani, had a surprising bond when they met Friday in the Oval Office: populist outsiders, lovers of the Big Apple, and two politicians who each want what the other has.” -- Axios

This is no surprise to me. Donald Trump has once again shown his true ideological orientation, this time in the most dramatic fashion—a “lovefest” with the openly Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani. Like Mamdani, Trump is fundamentally a collectivist. Collectivism is the foundation of Socialism, whether of the Fascist or Communist variety. 

It’s instructive that, after his meeting with Trump, which he characterized as “productive,” Mamdani reiterated his belief that Trump is a Fascist. Indeed, as Axios reported on “Why it matters: For a few minutes, Mamdani — whom Trump had called a communist — and Trump, whom Mamdani had called a fascist, gave a glimpse of how they might find common ground . . .“ Common ground, indeed! Whether or not Trump is a full-blown Fascist or Mamdani is a full-blown Communist, the fact remains that Fascism and Communism are, as the great champion of The Enlightenment Steven Pincker has observed, “fraternal twins.” No wonder the meeting went so well—these 2 are kindred spirits--Socialist at the core. 

Trump, remember, is a life-long New Yorker and Democrat. He and Mamdani both praised FDR, whose Constitution-upending New Deal mimicked Fascism, not Communism. Trump is also a Teddy Roosevelt admirer. TR was the Progressive who ran on the Republican label because he believed he couldn’t win as a Democrat. Like TR, Trump hijacked the Republican Party because he knew he wasn’t Leftist enough to win as a Democrat.

Please don’t tell me that this meeting is a mere pragmatic political ploy. Trump has given Democratic Socialism a nation-wide credibility and prestige it could never have earned on its own. This is how totalitarian Socialism comes to America—not on merits it doesn’t have, but by supposed Capitalists (which Trump is not) granting it a legitimacy it doesn’t and can never deserve. True, they are still political adversaries, and will probably butt heads in the future. But it will be superficial, not fundamental. Trump has pushed the Republican Party sharply to the Left, helping to pave the way for the Mamdani’s of the Democratic Party.

Related Reading:

Zohran Mamdani and Donald Trump Prove That There Are Two Paths Toward Socialism by J.D. Tuccille for Reason

Will Trump’s “State Capitalism … a Hybrid Between Socialism and Capitalism” Make America Great Again? by Michael Chapman for Capitalism Magazine and The Cato Institute

Related Viewing:

Reason on "Republican Socialism" -- Trump Embraces Mamdani Socialism as 'Practical'

The Foundations of Democratic Socialism Must Be Repudiated

In my last post, A Criminal Wins in NYC, I wrote:

As to why so many supposed “Americans” can turn to an ideology so diametrically opposed to Americanism, and what can be done to stop it, that is a discussion for another time.

Well, this is the time.

From CNN’s Democratic socialism, according to Zohran Mamdani

There’s a fair amount of confusion and fear generated in the US by the term “socialist,” which is associated with repressive societies like Communist China, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR, North Korea or Cuba.

Communism, as expressed in “The Communist Manifesto,” supports the idea that there will be a class war in which private property and the means of production are seized for the public good. Think “Animal Farm.”

Democratic socialism does not support the notion of a class war and instead pursues socialist goals through democratic means.

“And,” Mamdani says, “I think ultimately, the definition for me of why I call myself a democratic socialist is the words of Dr. [Martin Luther] King decades ago. He said, call it democracy or call it democratic socialism. There must be a better distribution of wealth for all of god’s children in this country.” [sic]

Note that Mamdani does not repudiate the idea that “private property and the means of production are seized for the public good.” A government that can seize the means of production—all businesses, land, jobs, investments, etc.—is a totalitarian state. He just thinks that it should be done by “democratic means.” Does it matter? No. Whether by violent class war or “peaceful” elections, tyranny is still tyranny. But what principles justify such a criminal system? Yes, socialism attracts the seekers of the unearned, the envious, the powerlusters, the haters of the good. Those types have always existed. But what enabling factors bring these scoundrels into power?

Equality

Democracy

Altruism

Equality is unnatural. Human life is fundamentally individual. Each of us billions of people are unique, and so in a free society individual outcomes and conditions will naturally vary widely. Inequality is the iron law of human nature. When you hear economic inequality being presented as a problem for the government to “solve,” you are encountering a rebellion against nature itself. Thus, to get any kind of equality of outcome or condition, such as  “a better distribution of wealth,” the state must have totalitarian power over everyone’s lives, work, earnings and wealth. Note the precision of the Founding Fathers: The Declaration of Independence does not say “All men are equal.” It says “All men are CREATED equal”—meaning only at birth, equally free TO PURSUE their own values, goals, fortunes and happiness based on the rights to life and liberty, and to own whatever they achieve. But socialists believe life conditions, not individual rights, must be equal. There is no value in such equalities of outcome—which contradicts human nature—and no justice. If socialists are to be stopped, it is this version of equality that must be challenged and repudiated, because such a violation of natural law can only be imposed by at the point of ba gun.

Democracy is a manifestation of totalitarianism. It holds that elected officials can do whatever they please with everyone's lives and properties and for whatever goals they deem desirable. But do not confuse Democracy as a social system with the democratic process. in a free society like America’s, elections decide on political leaders, but the government’s powers are limited to protecting individual rights, and thus everyone’s freedom and properties are protected from schemes such as Mamdani’s. America is a constitutionally limited Republic with a democratic PROCESS, not a Democracy. If the Mamdanis and his ilk are to be stopped, it is Democracy that must be challenged and repudiated. 

Altruism is the moral theory that every individual is duty-bound to self-sacrificially serve the needs of others before himself. That morality is the heart, the soul, and the justification of socialism. That’s why it’s called SOCIALism; you owe your life to the collective, not to yourself. Capitalism is based on the opposite, the morality of rational self-interest, which holds that the individual has a moral right to make his own life the best it can be as long as he respects the same moral rights of others. This is the meaning of the most individualist political phrase ever, the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To its glory, that is the heart and soul of Capitalism.

Politically, the difference between Socialism and Capitalism is the difference between a totalitarian state and a free, rights-protecting government—in other words, between a Communist China, USSR, North Korea or Cuba, and a United States of America. To protect a free America from a Socialist America, be it Communist or Mamdani-style Democratic Socialist, it is Equality, Democracy, and Altruism that we must recognize as evil, and thoroughly repudiate.

If you think I am overstating Mamdani’s danger, then here’s more.

From Reason’s  Mamdani Teaming Up With Lina Khan Paints a Grim Picture of What's To Come

During his victory speech, Mamdani—a democratic socialist—opined that there's "no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about."

That's a disturbingly totalitarian view of the role of the state.

Indeed. That mindset puts every aspect of our lives in the crosshairs of our government. The Washington Post elaborates in Zohran Mamdani drops the mask

The mayor-elect divides New Yorkers into two groups: the oppressed and their oppressors.

A new era of class warfare has begun in New York, and no one is more excited than Generalissimo Zohran Mamdani. Witness the mayor-elect’s change of character since his Tuesday election victory.

Mamdani ran an upbeat campaign, with a nice-guy demeanor and perpetual smile papering over a long history of divisive and demagogic statements. New Yorkers periodically checking in on politics could understandably believe that he simply wanted to bring the city together and make it more affordable. That interpretation became much harder after his victory speech.

Across 23 angry minutes laced with identity politics and seething with resentment, Mamdani abandoned his cool disposition and made clear that his view of politics isn’t about unity. It isn’t about letting people build better lives for themselves. It is about identifying class enemies — from landlords who take advantage of tenants to “the bosses” who exploit workers — and then crushing them. His goal is not to increase wealth but to dole it out to favored groups. The word “growth” didn’t appear in the speech, but President Donald Trump garnered eight mentions.

People’s lives, in Mamdani’s world, can be improved only by government: “We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about.” The crowd cheered, of course, but a thinking person might wonder whether it’s good for the institution that has a monopoly on violence to insist that nothing is beyond its purview.

Mamdani says he’s not a Marxist. But this is pure Marxism

Now, here’s more from CNN’s Democratic socialism, according to Zohran Mamdani

Mamdani quoted the most famous American socialist, Eugene Debs, in his acceptance speech Tuesday night and talked about doing more for “working people” as opposed to the rich.

It’s worth reading a bit more from Debs’ remarks.

DEBS: I believe, Your Honor, in common with all Socialists, that this nation ought to own and control its own industries. I believe, as all Socialists do, that all things that are jointly needed and used ought to be jointly owned — that industry, the basis of our social life, instead of being the private property of a few and operated for their enrichment, ought to be the common property of all, democratically administered in the interest of all…

I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.

Given that Capitalist fortunes are made by brilliant entrepreneurs providing values to millions and millions of average consumers—the people who work the jobs created by the talented fortune builders—it’s shocking that Debbs and his ilk are not radicals for Capitalism. But of course, common to all socialists is envy, powerlust, and hatred of productive achievers. They don’t give a damn about the “millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives.”

It’s that notion of seizing the means of production to which Mamdani’s fiercest critics have pointed. In comments he made on a recorded session for student activists with Young Democratic Socialists of America in 2021, he said that was the “end goal” of socialists like him.

The “end goal”—totalitarianism. This is Marxism. This is Communism. This is Zohran Mamdani. This is what is taking hold in America, under the brand Democratic Socialism.

I rest my case.

Related Reading:

The Passion of Socialists by Craig Biddle

Democratic Socialism: The Left Escalates America’s Journey to Totalitarianism

Socialism vs. Welfare Statism: Why These Terms Matter

Democratic Socialism: The Rise of the Pigs

Socialism's Totalitarian Nature Cannot Be Obscured by 'Democratic Socialism'

Democracy Fundamentalism vs. Americanism

A Socialist Confirms that the Basics of ‘True’ Socialism is Totalitarianism

The Myth of the Ill-Informed, Well-Intentioned Socialist

What is Capitalism? By Ayn Rand