As we celebrate independence, ponder what’s needed to keep it

Thursday, July 4, 2024 | 2 a.m.

According to the Library of Congress, the first public readings of the Declaration of Independence, in 1776, were marked by ringing bells, concert performances, cannon fire and bonfires that continued late into the night. It was quite a celebratory affair given that the delegates to the Continental Congress had just signed their warrants as traitors to the crown. As a result, many of them sacrificed their wealth, societal status, longstanding relationships and, in some instances, their lives.

Yet that didn’t stop them from fighting for what they believed in or celebrating their newfound independence.

One year later, on July 4, 1777, the tradition of fireworks began as ships in Philadelphia harbor gave a 13-gun salute in honor of the 13 colonies and the Sons of Liberty launched fireworks over Boston Common.

Then, on July 4, 1778, as war raged and the prospects of victory for the Continental army were dubious, George Washington ordered that his soldiers receive double rations of rum and surplus foods in honor of the occasion.

Despite the incredible growth and change in the United States since our founding, celebrations of the signing and adoption of the Declaration of Independence have remained remarkably consistent over the past two and half centuries.

When we gather with our neighbors, friends and family for an Independence Day picnic or fireworks, we are continuing a tradition that stretches back to when a courageous group of idealists with little funding and few friends acted courageously and declared war on the greatest military power in the world.

Also unchanged are our ideals as a nation founded on the principles of self-determination, equality under the law, and the liberty and freedom to pursue happiness and prosperity.

Today, those ideals are threatened by a new generation of tyrants and monarchs who believe in limiting the basic civil rights and liberties of Americans they disagree with or don’t like, and abusing public office to pursue personal retribution and individual enrichment.

Like the Founding Fathers, we must decide whether our celebration of Independence Day is all show or if, in addition to continuing the traditions of revelry, we will act courageously and defend democracy from tyrants and monarchs.

To be clear, ambitious villains have always posed a threat to American democracy.

Fortunately, in the past, the American system of checks and balances ensured that no one person or branch of government could amass too much power. Today, however, both Republicans in Congress and the conservative majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices have become mere pawns for Donald Trump and his MAGA extremists — breaking the system of checks and balances laid out by the founders in the U.S. Constitution.

Congress has been incapable of serving as an effective check on executive authority for more than 30 years, since Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich made it clear that party loyalty must take priority over effective governance.

Then, earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court surrendered its authority to serve as a check, establishing near-total civil and criminal immunity for the president and specifically prohibiting judicial review of most presidential actions that may have once been considered criminal.

The decision stands in stark contrast to both the language of the Constitution, which specifically anticipates criminal prosecution of a president, and the written words of the founders themselves.

In Federalist 69, Alexander Hamilton distinguished the president, who is subject “to the forfeiture of life and estate by subsequent prosecution,” from a king, who “is sacred and inviolable; there is no constitutional tribunal to which he is amenable.”

Now, MAGA extremists want to restore the United States to a monarchy.

Fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, in the final letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote before his death, he described what he hoped the lasting impact of the Declaration and of Independence Day celebrations might be:

“May it be to the world, what I believe it will be … the signal of arousing men to burst the chains … and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form, which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. … For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.”

But Trump and his MAGA followers do not believe in self-government or the rights of the people to choose their leader. That’s why he led an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and continues to deny that President Joe Biden was duly elected in 2020.

Trump and his MAGA followers do not believe in reason. That’s why they deny science and spout “alternative facts” and conspiracy theories.

They do not believe in freedom of opinion. That’s why they fight tirelessly to ban books and eliminate discussion of issues or topics that they don’t like or that make them uncomfortable.

In short, Trump and his MAGA followers don’t believe in anything that even remotely resembles the promise of American democracy, self-determination or civil liberties. They believe in a tyrannical monarchy in which they can do what they want, when they want, without question — everyone else be damned.

This Independence Day, we hope you’ll take a moment to reflect on the words of the founders as reflected in the Declaration of Independence and the courage they displayed in openly opposing the British crown. Look at the fireworks and reflect on the cannons firing in a war for independence that took the lives of countless Americans. Enjoy the barbecue and beverages while contemplating the starvation of soldiers who wanted nothing more than to have their civil liberties secured and be represented in their government.

They did their part. Now, it’s up to us to save our democracy from the jaws of Trump’s monarchy.