As we celebrate America’s 250th birthday, Americans should remember that in 1776 the Declaration of Independence was a radical document, written by traitors to the Crown of England, who would have been killed for their treason had America lost the Revolutionary War. America was the first to officially declare that “all men are created equal” (although we allowed slave trade until 1808), attempting to reverse human history’s persistent theme of the rule of the few and elite over the many, the control of the privileged over the poor, the force of the powerful over the weak. Our American representative republic experiment, now copied in some form or fashion all over the world, is still in its infancy, still growing through its adolescence towards its maturity, still striving towards perfection as it cycles through achievements and failures, still trying to grow and not be silenced. Draco-II wants you silenced.

The attempt to become “a more perfect union” is what we should celebrate. Not how powerful we are militarily or how strong we are economically, but rather that we actually are trying to bring “forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” as Abraham Lincoln stated in his Gettysburg address (which every student ought to memorize). In that address, he cautioned about America becoming a nation divided; he warned that a united nation “or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure” if division and fear dominate.

The divisions MAGA Americans foster, and that many Republicans simply accept today, may herald the end of the American democratic experiment AS WE HAVE KNOWN IT. It will be only through unity of purpose (striving for that more perfect union), where our diversity of races and cultures join hands in equal access, with equity among citizens (as treated by our laws, one man/one vote, no corporate personhood), and inclusion of all citizens in full governance participation at all levels, that we can make it through the current stresses and reverse the current downswing.

Draco-II, as divider-in-chief, is only looking out for himself and those that can keep him in power and/or make him and his family wealthier, even as the sustainability of global industrial and consumer civilization faulters. Draco-II is the embodiment of what our founding fathers rebelled against and pledged their lives to halt. The Project 2025’s division and separation mode of fear brainwashed and marketed into the American consciousness, the White Christian Nationalist mode of a single race and cultural supremacy that claims dominion of all, the long-planned legalese manipulation of existing laws by the elitist Federalist Society that has overtaken jurisprudence and is now manifest in the current SCOTUS, the attempt to federally control and rig elections (with Tennessee state-government approval), etc., are all just a portion of what must be overcome to save us from authoritarianism.

Start democracy’s recovery by voting only for Democrats in coming elections, then hound them relentlessly to govern for all.

Bob Bates

Tullahoma