The Real Meaning of the Fourth of July - Part 1
Newsletter #24 - June 19, 2024
A letter from JM:
We own values. Our core beliefs are who we are, and they’re powerful. Yet, we Democrats never seem to recognize it, we never seem to look deeper. We cling to policies, and purity tests, and squabbling. We divide ourselves endlessly. We take apparent victory and turn it into defeat, and we do it over and over again. And each time we scratch our heads and ask “why?”
The Republicans understand we own values, that’s why they have spend so much time and money demonizing us. It’s why they’ve had a giant organization working in the background for decades, just to destroy our identity. They fear our values because they’re American values, because they stand for this country’s future, because deep down most Americans want to believe in them.
But these core values are never going to really be seen as our values … as our identity … until we stand up and declare them, till we own them. And there’s no better example than the Fourth of July.
We treat it like everyone else, as a simple national holiday. But the truth is, the Declaration of Independence is much, much more. Those opening words of are the soul of our party. “All men are created equal” says it all. “Unalienable rights” … “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness,” those are the very words we live by as Democrats.
Those opening words aren’t actually about declaring independence, that’s what everybody misses. Those words are a statement of intent. They’re a carefully crafted outline of what the Founding Fathers hoped would be ultimately achieved by independence, a vision of the nation’s final destiny, our true purpose as a people … the very thing that, down in our hearts, we Democrats see as our purpose.
Too many of us get lost in the fact that the Founding Fathers had flaws, that most of them owned slaves and were driven by self-interest and greed. It’s irrelevant. Everyone in those times did. Slavery was still considered “normal” in most of the world back then. So were kings, and violence, and massive injustice on a scale we can hardly imagine.
But the founding Fathers were also a product of the Enlightenment. They thought about things. They had vision, no matter how imperfect. That higher impulse is what inspired them set out those opening words. That is what inspired them to create a vision that … after nearly than two and a half centuries of struggle …is finally within our grasp. No, all people are not treated equally, nor is Freedom Justice and Opportunity equally distributed, nor will it be for a very long time. But for the very first time ever, the majority of Americans believe it should. It doesn’t matter that many still balk at the ideals, or that so many others give lip service. The mere fact that the majority of Americans agree with the basic tenets of our core values … the Democratic Creed … is an incredible statement, because that agreement has never happened before in the entire history of our country.
Think about a black President. Think about the fact that most Americans no longer consider gay marriage an issue, or the idea of equal pay for equal work. Think about BLM marches where most of the marchers were white. Think about the voters in Kansas asserting a woman’s right to own her body, then ask yourself: would that have been possible even fifty years ago?
In many ways, we owe so much of this progress to those momentous opening words in the Declaration, words that still excite us nearly 250 years later. That is the real significance of the Fourth of July, and that is why we own it. And that is why we need to stand up and declare it. Remember that as the holiday approaches. Remember who we are as Democrats. This year, put out some yard signs that say “All people are created equal” and “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness … vote Democrat!” Be proud.
J.M. Purvis
Update: Manistee County, MI is the latest to adopt the Democratic Creed, and join our growing community. Congrats Manistee!
