We are 240 years removed from the signing of the
Declaration of Independence. It has become abstract to us. Its ideals are
abstract. The causes over which our Revolution was fought seem far removed from
our everyday lives.
For
perspective, we are as close to World War II now as the World War II generation
was to the Civil War, and the generation that fought the Civil War was as close
to the Revolutionary War as we are to World War II. We have grandfathers who
stormed Normandy. The men who stormed Normandy had grandfathers who endured the
pains of the Civil War. The men of the Civil War had grandfathers whose first
memories were of the birth of this nation. The Founders of our nation were as
close in their lives to the Glorious Revolution of 1688 as we are now to the
early days of Germany’s re-emergence as a global threat.
Just
as the struggle in World War II is real to us because we are so close in time
to it, the struggle of the Glorious Revolution was not abstract to our
Founders, who believed themselves heirs to it and the English Bill of Rights.
Their grandfathers and great-grandfathers had fought for the rights of
Englishmen and had been given rights such as a right to keep and bear arms and
have trials by jury and have no soldier quartered in their homes. The reason we
have our Bill of Rights is because the American revolutionaries were fighting
for what they thought was their Bill of Rights. When it became clear that the
king and Parliament had no intention of giving them those rights, they declared
themselves free and independent.
Along
the way they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, to an
idea that is America. We are not a nation because of long held geographic
proximity to each other and the evolution of a common tongue. Nor are we a
nation because we had one strong man declared king to unite us. We are
Americans, all of us, by choice. Perhaps it is not our choice, but the choice
of our ancestors who chose to throw off their historic and binding ties to a
former nation in order to begin again anew within the great experiment of the
American experience.
Fast
forward 240 years.
The
Democrats would hand us over to a woman who, while in office, mishandled
classified information and lied about it publicly. The Republicans would hand
us over to a man who has swindled old people and single mothers out of money,
rigged a system to ensure he got rich while others lost their shirts in
bankruptcy, bragged about his affairs, and dog-whistled to racists and white
supremacists.
No
one in either party is willing to stand up and lead. Our leaders are children.
None are willing to declare this madness on the part of both parties and demand
a change.
Both
parties have allegiances now to themselves and not to country. No right
thinking person can look at Hillary Clinton and think her handling of
classified information and lies about it to the public qualifies her for the
office of the president of the United States. No right thinking person can look
at Donald Trump and think this is a man we should put in the White House.
But
patriotism has given way to team sport. Both parties declare others patriots by
supporting their party, not their country. The Founders would be horrified and
we should all be ashamed.
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