HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!

(Cross-posted at Burnt Orange Report.)

I believe that the Declaration of Independence is one of the great political documents of all time. Apparently, many other people do; the Declaration is one of the most-imitated charters of human freedom in the world. Even the Texas Declaration of Independence borrows its structure, ideas and some specific statements from the document written during a sweltering summer of 1776 in Philadelphia.

The Declaration articulates not only a case for the separation of the colonies from the English homeland, but lays out a view of humankind and a description of the relationship between a people and its government that was, at the time, revolutionary:

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.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

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

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.

Imagine Johnny Carson had a TV show in England in 1776. He'd have read that and said, "That's crazy stuff!" Unalienable rights, given by God and not the king? The people creating the State, and retaining the power to un-create it? The people's right and duty to have a government, as Barbara Jordan put it, "as good as its promise?" These ideas were staples of philosophical treatises, but the Declaration of Independence was the first major document in which they were the operating principles of a democracy.

As we celebrate the 232nd anniversary of our nation's founding, let's enjoy what a radical and amazing idea it was at the time -- and re-commit ourselves to the making an America as good as its promise.

This video made by Declare Yourself and Constitution Live and executive produced by the incomparable Norman Lear. Give it a watch and listen, and see if you're not inspired.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!