Peal the bells and launch the fireworks for the Semiquincentennial. It is the America, however brief, that should be “ma[d]e…great again.” Its truth is “that all men are created equal,” and, from observation and common sense, interpreting that equality to apply to “the consent of the governed.” 

That revolutionary notion—which made Americans “exceptional”—lasted barely a decade until betrayed by the reactionary, oligarchic forces that framed the U.S. Constitution. 

This is not novel analysis: many historians and political scientists have detailed the decline of democracy by comparing our two foundational documents. As a schoolboy, I was misled, as many I suspect were, by the impression that the “Founding Fathers” produced both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution as a continuous process. In fact, only six of the Declaration’s 56 signers signed the Constitution.

The enumerated offenses of George III included having “…endeavoured to prevent the population of these States…refusing…migrations hither;” “…made Judges dependent on his Will alone;” “…sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass [sic] our people;” “…kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies;” “affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power;” “combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution;” etc., etc. 

In 1776, those conditions gave colonists the right to violently overthrow the colonizing power. Two and one-half centuries later, what Jefferson suggested has been criminalized. The principle of a government “of laws, not of men,” popularized by John Adams, has never been a reality; it appeared true when we were governed by reasonable leaders. But now we have witnessed that our laws are not sufficient to protect us. And there is the suspicion that many Americans favor authoritarian rule.

John A. MacKinnon
Lackawaxen, PA