We are all acquainted with the famous 2nd-paragraph of the Declaration of Independence; it contains, in just a couple of sentences, some of the most radical words ever put to paper. When written, they carried a death sentence.
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, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
As the years have gone by, as I’ve encountered arguments ad nauseum that the first sentence’s mention of a ‘Creator’ means we are a Christian Nation*, I find that I am more moved by what follows:
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, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
“If it is ever proper for men to kneel, we should kneel when we read the Declaration of Independence.”
Ayn Rand
That passage, written by men familiar with Europe’s centuries of religious warfare and its appalling consequences, says plainly that this is a government of self-governing men free to live as “shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” I think that when we hear talk about a Christian Nation, we are hearing a perspective deeply hostile to the founding ideal of self-governance, and I think much of our contemporary turmoil has its locus in the refusal of a broad swath of American society to step-up to their country’s ideals.
We are not subjects bound to live and do as some distant king commands, whether that king is corporeal or cosmic. We are men, and we should live as our reason commands. That idea is the beating-heart of the Declaration of Independence, and the idea now threatened by Donald Trump (who is an authoritarian) and his evangelical supporters (who are children who want to be told what to do).
This would not be a bad time, then, to recall that Donald Trump lost the popular vote, and lost it decisively; just this past week, more than forty of the fifty states refused to indulge Trump’s absurd claim that voter fraud denied him a popular victory. America’s institutions are sound, and the American people are sound, and in the hard and ugly days that are coming we will be worthy of our heritage.
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* The Founders were Deists; they believed that the Creator created and then disengaged himself from human/earthly affairs. They explicitly rejected the idea of a personal god.