Happy Fourth of July, 2025, to all of my readers!
We often celebrate the birth of our American Republic by quoting from the Declaration of Independence, written largely by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.
We are all familiar with the famous words in the introduction:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 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.”
When we hear these words repeated at July 4th events, sometimes accompanied by soft, martial music played by a service band, they warm our hearts with the promise of freedom that inspired millions of Americans to risk their lives to protect our “one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.”
The list of “repeated injuries”
This stirring introduction, you might remember, was followed by a lengthy list of “repeated injuries and usurpations” imposed on the American colonies by English King George III, “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.”
Here are some of the charges against George III in Mr. Jefferson’s Declaration. (Note the 18th century strange use of capital Letters in this document.)
- “He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.”
- The king was charged with “cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world,” for “imposing Taxes on us without our consent,” and “for depriving us in many cases of the benefit of Trial by Jury.”
- George III is also accused of “transporting us beyond the Seas to be tried for pretended offences” and of “taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments.”
- George III also “suspended our own Legislatures, and declared [himself] invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.”
Is any of this beginning to sound familiar? Does any of this remind you of things happening in the United States today?
Do you think President Donald Trump wants to make “Judges dependent on his Will alone?” Is that why he has called for the impeachment of D.C. District Judge James Boasberg, who challenged Trump’s deportation of immigrants without due process of law?
Have we heard the many voices worrying that Trump’s tariff policy might well “cut off our Trade with all parts of the world,” and that the cost of these tariffs will amount to “imposing Taxes on us without our consent” since Congress has not approved them?
And what about those many men arrested as gang members and “transported” to El Salvador where they are being “deprived ... of the benefit of Trial by Jury?” We understand that some of them may have been accused of “pretended offences.”
Our President has not “suspended our Legislatures,” but he is certainly ignoring the Constitutional rights of Congress, and has repeatedly “declared [himself] invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.”
Since History never repeats itself (but only occasionally rhymes), we know that Donald Trump cannot be a new George III. Yet the charges against him in our Declaration of Independence do seem to be taken from a very similar guidebook for Kings. And Trump did post on Truth Social on February 19 the following: “LONG LIVE THE KING.”
Why did Trump write this? Was it just a bad joke, or does it show his desire for sole or kingly power?
The truth is that George III was not the evil ruler that Jefferson portrayed him to be. Most of the actions that angered American colonists were born in the English parliament and not initiated by the king himself.
Similarly, Trump is not the brains behind the attack on our Constitution. The authoritarian creators of Project 2025 fill that role.
Trump is their agent – but they should join him as the “deplorables” who mar this important holiday.
And all of us citizens of this democracy must tell Trump and his enablers the same message put forth in the Declaration: “No Kings!”
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