The Founders would say fight for democracy
The Declaration of Independence was a rejection of the authoritarianism being deployed by Trump
John Trumbull’s painting, “Declaration of Independence,” depicting the five-man drafting committee of the Declaration of Independence — John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin — presenting their work to the Continental Congress. (National Portrait Gallery via Wikimedia
DURING THESE TUMULTUOUS times when our democracy is being turned upside down by an administration showing the worst side of what government can do, I picture our nation’s Founders and what they would make of today’s America.
What would John Adams, John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson say to the relentless attacks on our democracy from an administration that is focused on tearing down the pillars of our country?
As we prepare backyard barbecues in time for our Fourth of July celebrations, we need to remind ourselves the “why” of this national holiday.
Commemorating the birthday of the United States and the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, this cornerstone of our democracy declared, in no uncertain terms, separation from Great Britain.
The document was signed by 56 delegates of the Second Continental Congress, including five from Massachusetts: John Hancock, famously the signature on it, John Adams, who was instrumental in drafting it, Samuel Adams, a key figure in the American Revolution, Robert Treat Paine, a prominent lawyer and politician, and Elbridge Gerry, a merchant and diplomat. These Founding Fathers would be appalled at recent infractions of “certain unalienable rights” on display for the world to see.
The infractions continue to come at us at a furious pace in a relentless display of callousness from the White House. The public humiliation of elected officials; the suppression of free speech; the overreach of the government using executive orders to trample civil rights and human rights; the demonization of the media; the obsessive focus on Harvard University and foreign students across the country; the attacks on immigrants; the attacks on anything related to diversity, equity and inclusion; the marginalization of the Black community; the targeting of LGBTQ individuals, especially the trans community; rolling back health care programs for vulnerable populations; and dismantling US humanitarian aid to countries across the globe who are facing humanitarian crises.
The list goes on and on.
Every day there are new attacks on our basic rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. Unfortunately, the chaos brought on by the Trump administration is becoming a daily occurrence, the norm. We wake up each day and wonder, are we still living in the United States of America?
President Trump’s grip on the Republican Party, and their control of both chambers in Congress, has made it difficult to effect any change to what the Trump administration is doing. Many Republicans may privately disagree with Trump campaign promises that benefit the select few and remove protections from those Americans who need it most, but vote for bills that contain these policies out of fear of political retaliation.
They’ve stood idly by while the Trump administration cancels vital, congressionally mandated programs, yielding their constitutional “power of the purse.” And those Republicans who choose to stand up and call foul – those who participate in true policy discourse – are forced to retire from Congress.
Recently, there was a very disturbing altercation involving a US senator, Alex Padilla from California, who was handcuffed and thrown to the ground in a foreboding fashion because he appeared at a press conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles. She was there to tell the media how the Trump administration was going to “liberate” the city from the Democratic mayor and governor.
Padilla was exercising his First Amendment right to free speech. He is a US senator elected by his constituents in California, a son of Mexican immigrants who graduated from MIT with a degree in mechanical engineering.
Padilla recently wrote an essay in The New York Times denouncing the Trump administration’s tactics to suppress opinions and speech of anyone with whom they don’t agree.
He also cited the recent removal and arrest of New York City mayoral candidate Brad Lander, the city’s comptroller, who was trying to protect a migrant worker from federal agents. “Today it’s immigrants on the receiving end of Donald Trump’s outrage machine,” Padilla wrote. “Tomorrow it could be anyone.”
The Declaration of Independence references despotism in citing the colonists’ fight with the British Crown.
It feels like we are experiencing despotism under the current administration — the exercise of absolute power, especially in a cruel and abusive way. Padilla says what’s happening in Los Angeles is a warning shot but also a wake-up call – that “true liberation doesn’t come through military occupation; it comes from democratic participation.”
What would Adams, Hancock, Franklin, and Jefferson say? Keep up the fight, because there are no kings in the United States.
Thomas P. O’Neill, III is CEO of O’Neill and Associates, a Boston-based government relations and public affairs firm. He is a former Massachusetts lieutenant governor.
Commonwealth News Service