Since I was six years old, a poster of the Declaration
of Independence has hung on my bedroom wall. That’s one reason why
I turned out to be a young conservative. But I don’t suppose many
Leftists have posters of the Declaration of Independence hanging in their
homes and workplaces. They’ve managed to take it out of the schools
too. It seems the Left would rather burn it.
The Declaration is of equal importance to the Constitution, because it
is the founding creed of the United States. It is a classic doctrine of
American ideals that is the foundation of the constitution and the American
way of life.
Most importantly, the Declaration of Independence is a spiritual statement
of dependence on God. For that reason and the fact that the rights identified
in the Declaration come from God, the Left wants to keep the Declaration
of Independence hidden from the view of elementary school children and
college students alike.
The New Jersey State Assembly passed a bill in 1999 to require school
children to recite the Declaration of Independence, and the Left sent
out forces to vigorously lobby against it in the state senate. The New
Jersey Education Association said the Declaration of Independence is “too
jingoistic” and the reference to God crosses the line between separation
of church and state. Eventually, the bill was defeated.
What was New Jersey’s proposed recitation? It happens to be the vision
statement of America: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that
all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights governments are instituted
among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
If somehow the Declaration of Independence can be presented absent of
its core principles, the Left will engage in historical revisionism with
great fervor. This is the task of Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz
in his latest book America Declares Independence. Dershowitz spends most
of his time attacking conservatives for believing in the essential Declaration
of Independence. “It should come as no surprise that [the Declaration
has] been wrenched out of context by partisan pleaders to promote parochial
causes,” he writes.
Unfortunately for the revisionist, Mr. Dershowitz, the pure and unaltered
Declaration is not a document lacking in honest words and comprehensive
discussion of context. The British crown is thoroughly taken to task and
the practical reasoning for doing so is expounded in great detail. And
if it’s the simple truths of the Declaration that Mr. Dershowitz
is so disturbed by, he should remember that they don’t need context.
They’re “self-evident.”
The Declaration of Independence is not a fresh abridged translation courtesy
of the religious right as Dershowitz contends. The original parchment
leaves no stone unturned in its quest to summarize the truth about government
and natural rights. Besides identifying the source of rights (God), the
investiture of rights (individuals), and the definition of a legitimate
government (consent of the governed), the Declaration lists the three
things that a free people must be willing to sacrifice to preserve their
liberty. The founders wrote, “We mutually pledge to each other our
lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.”
So why is the Left so virulently intolerant of the Declaration of Independence?
Because it presents a political and philosophical worldview entirely inconsistent
with the liberal view that rights come from the government or Mother Earth,
that rights are invested in groups and classes of people, and that preserving
freedom is a task that can be met through the effortless consumption of
rights.
The Left says that we must move beyond the perspectives of slave-owning
white males known as the Founding Fathers, that we must cling to the prospects
of change and moral relativism. It just so happens that the sacred words
of the founding fathers were the summation of freedom for millions of
19th century southern slaves who rejoiced in their emancipation that all
human beings “are created equal.”
The Left will continue to distort, revise, and shred the Declaration of
Independence as long as we allow them to do so.
President Calvin Coolidge wouldn’t allow the Left to burn the Declaration
when he delivered a 4th of July oration 77 years ago. In it, he summed
up the disparity between liberalism and the Declaration of Independence.
“If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed
with inalienable rights, 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 cannot lay claim to progress. They are reactionary.
Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient than those of the Revolutionary
Fathers.”
Let’s never forget that we’re the real progressives when we
believe in the Declaration of Independence.
Hans Zeiger, 18, is a Seattle Times columnist, activist, and speaker.
As an Eagle Scout, he is president of the Scout Honor Coalition. He can
be contacted at [email protected].