My “Prayer for the Republic” (February 8, 2025) is an expression of what we might call a revival of public piety. For too long the symbols, rituals, and writings of our political heritage have been co-opted by groups intent on actually sabotaging the spirit and now indeed the very structures of government that have rested on this deep cultural tradition of belief, loyalty, and practice. They have wrapped themselves in the flags of our political loyalties in order to advance what is rapidly becoming a tyrannical caricature of the Constitutional order. We thus face not only a corruption of civil piety but of what many have called our civil religion.
In this civil religion, as Robert Bellah, Sidney Mead and many others have pointed out, the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, is a foundational document. The principles and argument it contains are a touchstone for orienting our national life. As Niccolo Machiavelli, whom Jefferson and the founders read very closely, said, in times of revolution it is imperative that we return to the founding principles of a republic. This is what Abraham Lincoln did at Gettysburg in 1963, and now what we are called to do today. In that spirit, I offer this new take on the Declaration. Even as I set fingers to keyboard today I received a similar and very apt version of this effort from Asutosh Jogalekar in 3 Quarks Daily. I recommend his version highly and encourage you to write your own version to share as we approach July 4 this year. Here is my effort.
A Declaration of Political Liberty
When in the course of human events, a constitutional republic descends into oligarchy and tyranny, it is necessary to return to our founding principles. Among them are commitment to self-government through open and reasonable public argument, respect for the dignity and rights to life and common welfare of every human being, and the subjection of governmental power to lawful order sustained by the underlying constitutional covenants of the people. In a time of false memories and contempt for reasonably founded truth, we need to name the present tyrannical threats to the body politic as well as envision a pathway forward to regaining our public liberty and peace.
The present President of these United States of America, Donald J. Trump, has sought to overturn our laws and civil order to establish an absolute Tyranny over our fellow citizens and our legitimate governmental orders. Here, then, are the facts of this increasing tyranny and corruption.
At the end of his first administration he organized a violent mob to overthrow the certification of the victory of his opponent, leading to the deaths of six people and the terrorizing of the Congress.
He has constantly sought to overturn our election laws, procedures, and outcomes, calling their legitimacy into question and seeking to corrupt their proper functioning. He has called into question the Constitutional limitation of Presidents to two terms in office.
He has corrupted our language by calling lies truth and eye witness reports fake news. From his lips flows a flood of lies and deceptions too numerous to catalog and contest. He has attacked a free press, the indispensable basis of a free, self-governing people. He has attempted to silence the free discourse of the public by proscribing the use of hundreds of words and phrases in governmental publications.
He has sought to impose on citizens, through administrative dictates, his own version of American history, place names, and views of sex and gender.
He has vilified the good name of citizens, especially the most marginal and vulnerable, calling them “vermin” and “scum,” thus silencing the public conversation at the heart of republican life.
He has used the offices of government to enrich himself, his family, and wealthy individuals and corporations who bend obsequiously to his will.
He has evaded and opposed the proper role of Congress to authorize and oversee the laws and structures for governmental action.
He has repeatedly pardoned his supporters and agents who have been convicted of crimes, even criminal acts against government itself, thus evacuating the judicial process of any consequence for his violent or criminal supporters.
He himself has been convicted in state court of 34 felony counts of business fraud, bringing disgrace upon his office and person. He has been found civilly liable for rape and has bragged about his sexual attacks on women.
He has attacked judges and the judicial process with violent and degrading language, threatening them with impeachment and prosecution for ruling against him or his supporters and endangering their lives within a climate of fear.
He has extorted millions of dollars in services for his own ends from some of our most prestigious law firms, thus corrupting their role in the fair adjudication of disputes.
He has caused the precipitous crippling or elimination of governmental agencies and fired employees indiscriminately without proper Congressional authorization, thus weakening our government, robbing citizens of necessary assistance in times of need and peril, and exposing us to threats from our historic adversaries.
Through chaotic and unreasonable tariffs he is rapidly and irreversibly undoing our economic recovery from global recession and pandemic as well as endangering the global connections and web of mutual trust we depend on for economic prosperity.
He has filled the highest government offices with incompetent and subservient cronies, whose capricious attacks on medical, public health, environmental, social welfare, and social security programs threaten the lives of millions of our fellow citizens and others in distress around the world.
His appointees have used insecure communications to avoid preserving records of government actions in the national archives, thus hiding them from Congressional and judicial oversight. He has stolen government archives and classified documents and held them in his private residence.
He has undermined the bonds of just order, honor, Constitutional loyalty, and humane decency that are at the core of our professional military services and their defense of a free republic. He has declared those of us who sacrificed their very lives in the defense of liberty “losers” and “suckers.”
He has attacked our historical friends and allies, threatening in some cases to invade or annex them, while flattering the tyrants he admires and who threaten our long-time partners and alliances.
He has corrupted our religious life by base appeals to religious zealotry and by favoring one sect or religion over others, thus fomenting the strife and mistrust that brought disaster and war to Europe and the Americas for centuries.
He has reversed our long-standing efforts to preserve our natural environment. He has sought to silence the scientists who have identified the sources of our global climate change and the possible ways to reverse it.
He has attacked the universities and research centers that have been the source of our global strength, domestic health, and technological innovation. He has used the threat of removal of government funding to extort compliance with his demands.
His attacks on scientific research and medical innovation leave us vulnerable to diseases, epidemics, and public health disasters that were brought under control over the past two centuries of medical advance.
He has caused persons to be seized without due process of law, sending some of them to prisons in foreign countries or areas beyond our legal jurisdiction.
A president whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant is unfit to hold the highest executive office under the constitution of a free people. We resolve to honor the fundamental principles of our constitutional republic by resisting this tyrant by every legal means at our disposal, holding him accountable to the oath he has repeatedly betrayed, and to reverse, through legal and well-ordered means, the policies and acts of institutional destruction and corruption that have so grievously injured our common life. We call upon our elected officials and representatives to exercise their constitutional powers to contain his tyranny and return us to our proper Constitutional order. Recognizing our own need to uphold the highest virtues and values of responsible citizenship, we pledge to seek to reform and perfect our political and governmental orders so that future generations might be able to participate in a just and peaceable republic sustained within a flourishing environment.
This Declaration is a Call to Dedication, vital in each true word, and replete with life in bold statement. Again, the times try men’s souls and this declaration affirms that we have souls and that they are worth saving.
Thank you so much, Gerd. It is indeed important that people link the lessons of their own histories to the world history of our struggle for a wider covenant among all the peoples of the earth as we seek a way to a greater flourishing through collaboration rather than domination.
This is an excellent essay on political constitutional resilience! thank you so much, Bill!!!
But what happens if too many people opt for a narrow ethnic identity defined by themselves rather than a wide inclusive identity defined by universal human rights? I just read about a longterm study in many countries world-wide of resistance to political change by those parts of the population who are afraid of losing their economic status and imagined ethnic identity and superiority. They are afraid of any change because of fear of losing out and opt for right-wing ideologies promising no significant changes but rather roll-backs to an imagined secure and stable past. That is why the number of right-wing party voters rise in Germany, especially in the former East Germany, and in many other countries including the USA. When will the negative economic consequences of Donald Trump’s and Elon Musk’s chainsaw politics with their irrational and arbitrary decisions be strongly enough felt to change the minds and hearts of people from MAGA illusions of power to the constitutional wisdom of checks and balances within the rules of law and belief in the common sense of human rights for all?
Appeals like yours will show the way! Thank you imensely!
May the spirit of Easter resurrect the constitutional basis of the love of all neighbors world-wide out of the abyss of ethnic egotism! Gerd
Bill,
Very articulately summarized. It is hard to believe that one person and his supporting administration has been allowed to continue the destructiveness to our humanity and our government.
So well done! Thank you!
Excellent, Bill!
THANK YOU!
BRAVO!!