Tag Archives: declarationofindependence

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Daily Broadside | Distorting History Will Never Bring the Offended Justice

As I mentioned on Friday, I was traveling this weekend. I was in Washington, D.C., where the world, the flesh and the devil meet in a swirling vortex of power and greed.

While I was there I walked down Pennsylvania Avenue past the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where plots against Trump were hatched and dirty information on Joe and Hunter Biden was suppressed. I walked down Constitution Avenue past the Department of Justice where Merrick Garland had the audacity to green light a raid on Donald J. Trump’s personal home, a first in American history, over nothing more than “classified” documents that he had the inherent power to declassify as he wished.

I wasn’t filled with pride when I saw these buildings; I was filled with revulsion at the sickening abuse of power that they represent.

There were some good experiences that offset the grim reminders those granite buildings represented. I walked through the National Archives (right next door to the DOJ) and saw the originals of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Those made my heart swell with pride over the foresight and wisdom of our Founding Fathers, who created the freest country the world has ever known.

But even they, in all their earthly wisdom, couldn’t make something that would outlast the evil in the human heart. I’ve quoted it before and will quote it a hundred more times before I die, but John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Generally speaking, we are no longer a “moral and religious People.” The people currently in the government “of, by and for the People” are drawn out of that no-longer-religious community. They are, with few exceptions, of, by and for themselves.

A good example of how this plays out was in the National Archives’ gift shop. As I walked through it something felt “off” to me. I couldn’t place my finger on it until it occurred to me that while there were facsimiles of our founding documents and pocket Constitutions and stickers and magnets and pencils and coffee cups and T-shirts, there were very few representations of the MEN who wrote these documents. Instead, what I saw were sections devoted to women and minorities.

I have no problem with acknowledging that women played a role in our founding, or that minorities also contributed. But the degree to which they were represented in the gift shop was all out of proportion to the contributions they made. Again, not to disparage any group, but it wasn’t women and minorities who wrote the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.

It doesn’t matter that it was a patriarchal society — you can’t make that “right” by somehow downplaying or demonizing men and increasing the presence of women in a gift shop.

Yet, that’s what I saw. And that is a direct result of a grievance, which comes from feeling a dissatisfaction or perceiving an injustice, which is believing you have been wronged — and that is exacerbated by not getting the justice or revenge you think you deserve.

Somehow, those in charge think they are getting “justice” by replacing our history or emphasizing minor actors out of proportion to their contributions. Unfortunately, all they’re doing is distorting history.

True justice for things done a hundred or two hundred years ago can’t be had. But, someday, the True Judge of all mankind will bring justice to bear and make all things right across all time.

Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
    therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
    Blessed are all who wait for him!
— Isaiah 30:18

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Daily Broadside | Don’t Look Now, But Those Days Are Gone Forever

Daily Verse | Proverbs 19:3
A man’s own folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the Lord.

Friday’s Reading: Proverbs 22-24
Saturday’s Reading: Proverbs 25-29

Friday and we’re halfway through July already. Less than four months to go before we the people can exercise our right to vote and put a Denver boot on the insane Brandon junta.

Michael Ramirez is by far my favorite political cartoonist. His technical mastery of pen, ink and color blends seamlessly with his understanding of political irony and satire.

The cartoon above is a study in contrast between what was and what is. What was were the Founding Fathers declaring independence from the most powerful nation in the world at the time, Great Britain, mutually pledging to each other their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.

None of them knew what the result would be, but all knew they were risking everything by signing the Declaration of Independence. To John Hancock’s worry, “We must be unanimous … we must all hang together,” Benjamin Franklin reportedly responded, “Yes, we must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

He was serious.

Ramirez adds to the solemnity of the moment of what was with what is — an entitled, pierced, tattooed left-wing socialist college kid who has no appreciation for the legacy he has been bequeathed by men who possessed more character, intellect and wisdom than the “dude” can imagine. Independence is taken for granted and instead of treating the freedom he has with the humble reverence it deserves, he’s concerned with only his own selfish demands.

That juxtaposition between the solemn and the self-centered is instructive, underscoring how far we are removed from our founding. Those days are (literally) gone and we live in a very different time. There is no going back.

I’ve sometimes been one of those who wished we could return to simpler times idealized by Father Knows Best or Leave It To Beaver or The Dick Van Dyke Show. But the truth is that there is no going back. And that’s true of our current situation over the last couple of years.

The election of Donald J. Trump exposed the absolute swamp that is Washington, D.C. We had always known that corruption was part of the culture in D.C., but the knives came out for Trump and we were treated to the unnerving reality that our ruling class operates outside of the law and doesn’t even pretend to hide it now.

We can’t unknow that.

Same with the 2020 presidential election and the fraud that was perpetrated across key states. We know that Democrats are raging hypocrites and abuse our institutions to get the outcomes they want. We know that the Republicans, with a few exceptions, are spineless creatures who are members of the Washington UniParty.

My point is that things are different now, and they can’t go back to the way they were. We know better.

That may seem like a big “duh” to you, but it’s been a slow realization for me that I’m finally, reluctantly, embracing.

It’s sad for me because I’ve loved my country and have always been proud to be an American. These days it’s more the original idea of America that I identify with as a patriot, not the current reality.

President Calvin Coolidge gave an historic speech on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1926. While the whole thing is worth reading, this one paragraph in particular is relevant to the circumstances we find ourselves in today.

About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

Doing a little juxtapositioning of my own, there’s a stanza in Don Henley’s song, The Boys of Summer, that has always struck me as melancholic:

Out on the road today
I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac
A little voice inside my head said
“Don’t look back, you can never look back”
I thought I knew what love was, what did I know?
Those days are gone forever
I should just let them go but…

Have a good weekend.

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Daily Broadside | “We Shall Nobly Save, or Meanly Lose, the Last Best Hope of Earth”

Daily Verse | Hosea 13:6
When I fed them, they were satisfied;
    when they were satisfied, they became proud;
    then they forgot me.

On the weekly merry-go-round we arrive once more at Friday. Please dismount and exit on the far side of the ride.

In yesterday’s commentary I suggested that there were some other things I think we can do to resist the collapse of the United States as we know it. Certainly prayer and the other six activities recommended by Doug Wilson are central to preparing and, perhaps, surviving the fall of “the last, best hope of earth.”

When our Founders decided to separate from Great Britain, they wrote in the Declaration of Independence a list of the grievances they had against the British crown, i.e. King George III. Here is how the declaration introduces the list.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, 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.

“A long train of abuses and usurpations” refers to the regular violation of the colonists’ rights, including taxation without representation, cutting off the colonists’ ability to trade, keeping a standing army in the colonies and not allowing fair trials. The declaration goes on to repeat the claim that “the history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.”

I would dare say that we are now back at that stage in our current historical moment, the only difference being that the seat of “federal” government in 1776 was on the other side of the ocean. Today, it sits in Washington, D.C. and sounds an awful lot like what is described as “having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.”

Jefferson and the drafting committee wrote up a list of 27 “Facts” they would submit “to a candid world” as proof of their complaints. Listen to some of these and tell me this isn’t déjà vu all over again.

“He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.” Laws like keeping our borders secure and allowing oil processing and coal mining to proceed uninterrupted, to name just a couple.

“He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.” Using pressure tactics or bribery or direct threats to gain compliance is as old as King George III. Anybody remember who said, “Ultimately, I’m confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically-elected congress”?

“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.” Internal Revenue Service, anyone? The FBI? Department of Justice? Department of Education? Do they not “harrass our people”?

“He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.” Can you say Mark Milley-Vanillie?

“For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:” Do you consent to all of the taxes the government imposes on you? In addition to income taxes, there are hidden fees, surcharges, sales taxes and service charges that add up to $657.5 billion in hidden taxes that Americans pay each year. How about the House trying to pass $3.5 TRILLION in new spending? Guess how that will be funded.

“He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.” Domestic insurrections like antifa and Burn, Loot, Murder, Inc. and the invasion of inhabitants across our borders from all manner of places that do not understand or care about freedom who will destroy “all ages, sexes and conditions.”

In order to justify not just resisting, but actively fighting back, we need to make our case before “a candid world” and nation. Not that our domestic enemies would care or even be able to comprehend the purpose of such a document. They’d see it as disobedience and fly into a rage, just like King George III. But we need to have something that gives us a framework for seeing the situation clearly and provides a common justification for any action we take.

Someone has to do it, and perhaps we can start with the short list above, tying it back to our Founding and taking Jefferson’s words to heart, “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of 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.”

Have a good weekend.

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Daily Broadside | It’s Time to Think About a New Declaration

Daily Verse | Job 2:10
“Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”

It’s the final Wednesday of May 2021, never to be repeated, ever again, as time unrolls day after day, like a carpet in perpetuity. I feel fortunate that I don’t have abibliophobia.

As Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he affirmed that, “a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” While most of us know the most famous words of the Declaration—”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”—how many of us know that about ⅓ of the document is a list of grievances the thirteen States held against the British Crown? These were the “causes which impel them to the separation.”

In the Declaration Jefferson writes, “The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, 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.” He then goes on to list 27 “Facts,” most of which start with “He has …,” referring to King George III.

Here are the first two, for instance:

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

Another one:

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

So George III bribed public officials? Another one:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

Gee, that sounds familiar, doesn’t it? I seem to recall that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent precisely because of lawlessness such as independent administrators making new election laws just in time for the election, bypassing the Legislators who alone have the power to make new laws.

I’m beginning to think that it may be time for a new Declaration.

As I’ve been pondering our situation in the U.S., it seems to me that Thomas Jefferson gave us permission to start over. He writes, “–That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of 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.”

Are we not now living in a time when our “Form of Government” has become “destructive of these ends”?

Seems to me that we could draw up a new and very long list of grievances against our ruling class, starting with the double standards in the application of our laws, the threats that senior officials are making against half the country, and the lawless illegal immigration of foreigners into our country allowed by our own government, the weaponization of the alphabet agencies (and the existence of the agencies themselves), the hatred and insidious doctrine of Critical Race Theory and Cultural Marxism that has been allowed to fester in our public institutions, the rules that force Christian institutions to violate their consciences, such as boys who think they’re girls being allowed in girls’ changing rooms or restrooms, and how “freedom of the press” has become a shield to protect the press from accountability when they are no longer publishing news but acting like an extension of the government.

There are probably hundreds of examples. How about it? Drop your ideas in the comment section.