{"id":173,"date":"2026-07-02T21:10:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T21:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=173"},"modified":"2026-07-02T21:10:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T21:10:31","slug":"on-americas-250th-anniversary-democracy-is-on-the-ropes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=173","title":{"rendered":"On America’s 250th Anniversary, Democracy Is On the Ropes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This Fourth of July marks the 250<\/span>th<\/sup> birthday of a\u00a0new kind of nation state\u2009\u2014\u2009based not on ancestral ties to a\u00a0land or on the territorial reach of monarchs, but on shared principles about the rights of citizens and the purpose of the\u00a0state.<\/p>\n

Read more Socialists Are Tearing Through the Democratic Party Establishment<\/a><\/p>\n

The Founding Fathers set forth those principles in the Declaration of Independence: \u200b\u201c<\/span>All men are created equal\u201d and have \u200b\u201c<\/span>unalienable Rights [to] Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.\u201d To \u200b\u201c<\/span>secure these rights,\u201d Jefferson wrote, the government must \u200b\u201c<\/span>derive just powers from the consent of the\u00a0governed.\u201d<\/p>\n

America has come a\u00a0long way over two and a\u00a0half centuries, but today we face a\u00a0grave challenge from within\u2009\u2014\u2009and especially from our own\u00a0leaders.<\/p>\n

Of course, those founding ideas have always been more aspiration than reality. In a\u00a0sense the Declaration of Independence was an invitation to struggle over the inequalities that marred the new nation: slavery and white supremacy, the subjugation of Native peoples, the legal subordination of women, the limitation of voting rights to the\u00a0well-off.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In the course of 250<\/span>\u00a0years, those struggles have achieved tremendous\u00a0progress.<\/p>\n

A bloody Civil War won what Lincoln called \u200b\u201c<\/span>a new birth of freedom.\u201d Slavery was abolished and the Constitution amended to strengthen the government\u2019s ability to safeguard the rights of African Americans and other\u00a0people.<\/p>\n

Women were eventually enfranchised and achieved formal legal equality. The lawless subordination and genocides of Native Americans were eventually recognized as the evils they are. The Civil Rights Movement repealed American apartheid and restored rights that had been stripped\u00a0away.<\/p>\n

But equality and democracy are openly contested today in a\u00a0manner not seen in a\u00a0century. Those who oppose the Founding Fathers\u2019 fundamental values are using our government to attack equality and democracy. The good news is that tens of millions of Americans are fighting\u00a0back.<\/p>\n

America is and always has been a\u00a0nation of diverse peoples\u2009\u2014\u2009a multi-ethnic, multi-racial mix\u2009\u2014\u2009and that is what the framers and their successors had in\u00a0mind.<\/p>\n

Read more Fascists Don\u2019t Know How to Party<\/a><\/p>\n

Indeed, the Declaration of Independence complained that the King obstructed the \u200b\u201c<\/span>Naturalization of Foreigners\u201d and failed to \u200b\u201c<\/span>encourage migration hither.\u201d Enslavers brought millions of Africans to our shores, and America became their land as well. National expansion westward incorporated French, Spanish, and Mexican peoples into America,\u00a0too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But today the Trump regime seeks to erase the diversity essential to our national character. White supremacy and white nationalism are threads running through nearly every policy\u2009\u2014\u2009from ending civil rights enforcement to discriminating against African-American military leaders, terminating refugee programs for nonwhites, slandering Haitians, and calling Hispanic migrants \u200b\u201c<\/span>the worst of the\u00a0worst.\u201d<\/p>\n

Free elections, majority rule, and democracy itself are Trump\u2019s targets\u2009\u2014\u2009from his efforts to overturn the 2020<\/span> election to his unrelenting assault on voting rights and representation\u00a0today.<\/p>\n

Today, gerrymanders demanded by Trump are likely to eliminate one third of African-American members of Congress. The Supreme Court has erased the protections of the Voting Rights Act. Evidence-free voter suppression laws are making it more difficult for eligible voters to cast their ballots, while Trump seeks to outlaw voting by mail and his backers threaten to deploy ICE to intimidate midterm\u00a0voters.<\/p>\n

On this 250<\/span>th<\/sup> anniversary of our first struggle for American freedom and democracy, Americans are fighting back\u2009\u2014\u2009in the voting booth, in the courts and in the\u00a0streets.<\/p>\n

The lesson of 250<\/span>\u00a0years: Democracy is hard won and may be easily lost unless we are vigilant in protecting it. The vision of our Founding Fathers depends on you, me, and all of us to safeguard\u00a0it.<\/p>\n

Read more Will NYC\u2019s Long-Suffering Tenants Carry Zohran Mamdani to Victory?<\/a><\/p>\n

This op-ed was distributed via Oth\u200ber\u200bWords\u200b.org.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration is attacking the foundations of our democracy\u2014but Americans are increasingly fighting back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-viewpoint"],"yoast_head":"\nOn America's 250th Anniversary, Democracy Is On the Ropes - Summit Relocation Timess<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=173\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On America's 250th Anniversary, Democracy Is On the Ropes - Summit Relocation Timess\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Trump administration is attacking the foundations of our democracy\u2014but Americans are increasingly fighting back.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=173\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Summit Relocation Timess\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-02T21:10:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=173#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=173\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/78261b7043eb436872da19e7c8eda597\"},\"headline\":\"On America’s 250th Anniversary, Democracy Is On the Ropes\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-02T21:10:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=173\"},\"wordCount\":640,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=173#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/2d555e9684e97429590b7ba460e28746.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Viewpoint\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=173#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=173\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/summitrelocationtimess.com\\\/?p=173\",\"name\":\"On America's 250th Anniversary, Democracy Is On the Ropes - 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