The American Declaration of Independence is not, as Donald Trump has said, “a declaration of unity, and love, and respect.” It was instead a declaration of separation from an authoritarian rule that had consistently failed to respect the basic human rights to which, as the Founders put it, “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God entitle them.”
The text begins: “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another… a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
Most people are familiar with the beginning of the second paragraph, which further clarifies the God-given rights to which all people are entitled:
“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.”
The next sentence is quoted less frequently, but is an equally important foundational principle: “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
The Founders clearly stated that the purpose of forming a government is to secure the basic human rights of the people and that government derives its just powers from the consent of the people. “Just” governments are created by the people and function with the “consent” of the people to ensure the basic human rights of the people. A majority does not constitute consent, but consent does not require universal agreement. Consent means a proposition or solution that everyone can "live with" or accept, even if it's not their ideal choice.
The responsibilities of a government in fulfilling its purpose were spelled out in the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America. “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” Each of these functions is meant to protect the unalienable rights and serve the common interests of the people.
The Founders further stated in their Declaration: “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.”
When a government fails to secure and defend the self-evident, God-given rights of its people or deprives people of an equal opportunity to exercise those rights, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it. The Founders favored altering rather than abolishing. Thomas Jefferson wrote: "As [the human mind] becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as a civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
Article V of the Constitution outlines a consensus process by which the people can amend their Constitution to ensure that their government does not “become destructive to these ends:” of securing their unalienable and equal rights of all to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Article V begins: “The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof.”
The Declaration of Independence continues: “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”
The current government of the United States has “lost the consent of the people,” and thus, has “lost its just power to govern.” One political faction feels that the government’s attempts to provide justice for all infringe on their individual liberties. Another faction feels the government’s failure to restrain individual liberties, particularly economic liberties, hinders its ability to establish justice for all. Many of the rest have given up on government. There can be no liberty without justice and no justice without liberty. A supermajority of the people think the country is headed in the wrong direction, regardless of which political party is in power.
The people have been unable or unwilling to consent to altering or changing their Constitution. By default, the U.S. Supreme Court has attempted to reinterpret the Constitution to reflect the new discoveries, new truths, and changes in manners, opinions, and circumstances anticipated by Jefferson. Court deliberations and decisions have met with the same divisiveness as new laws and executive actions.
The Declaration continues: “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.”
The political faction currently controlling the government in the United States apparently has decided that “it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off” the form of government established by the U.S. Constitution and to “provide new Guards for their future security.” Not new guards to ensure liberty and justice for all, but liberty for those economically and politically powerful enough to fend for themselves and denial, dismissal, detention, and punishment for those who oppose them.
Ironically, the long list of grievances against the King in the Declaration of Independence has a striking resemblance to the political agenda of the current administration. ( See the video at the link below.) When the resulting “long train of abuses and usurpations… evinces a design to reduce [or rule] them under absolute Despotism,” hopefully, the people will see “it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government”—the autocracy, the new monarchy—and will institute a new government of the people, by the people, and for the people—all the people.
Regardless, the Founders who drafted the Declaration of Independence provided us with a framework upon which to build a new government that secures the God-given, unalienable, and equal rights of all, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
John Ikerd