Oh hi, I’m feeling this one y’all. Buckle up.
It’s oh so easy to brush off the American founding as old white men in funny hats and all the free time to have leisurely pursuits, absconding off to Europe on philosophical quests about the nature of man, and bored enough to pick a fight with a world power that didn’t consider them worth the paper their decrees were written on.
Even if all that is true––I don’t know the guys––I do appreciate how truly revolutionary their goals were––fundamentally changing the way normal people view themselves in the world and how their consent matters in how they agree to be governed.
“All men are created equal.”
Is it self-evident? It surely wasn’t according to history 10 seconds before the ink hit the paper.
“We are endowed by God with unalienable rights… life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Hello dear, Woke readers, without trailing off in a string of reasons why America didn’t/hasn’t lived up to this standard, you have to admit that declaring that anyone has the right to live their life how it makes them happy is smashing the old ways of doing things and creating an environment that allows for equality. Let’s play a quick thought game, imagine what a world looks like when you have equity without the understanding of equality first. What kind of quality of life do you think that produces? I can save you the trouble, it’s post-WWII East Germany.
“And that to secure these rights, the government is instituted, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed.”
Our government’s primary responsibility is to make sure that equality exists and is protected. And in return, our government’s power is granted by those same people they are meant to be stewards over. Not imposed on by the powerful.
“Whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends. It's the right of the people to alter or abolish it.”
All human existence and experience have shown us that mankind is more disposed to suffer than to right itself. I want to use our own country’s civil war as an example to draw a distinction. Pulling from a Constitutional class I just finished by Hillsdale College they paraphrase Republicans favorite President Abraham Lincoln on southern secession:
Lincoln said there were three ways to describe what the Southern states were doing: secession, revolution, or insurrection.
1. It was not secession because there was no unilateral right for one party to withdraw from a contract.
2. It was not a revolution. Revolution is an appeal to natural law after a long train of abuses of the people’s natural rights. But, this argument fails as the institution the South sought to defend is a violation of the natural rights of a slave.
3. It was an insurrection, an armed rebellion, an unlawful resistance to lawfully constituted authority.
Southern succession was really an attempt to overturn the elections of a President (Lincoln) by force. According to Lincoln, the end of the succession doctrine is either anarchy or despotism.
I think it’s more important than ever to understand our history so we don’t repeat the tragic mistakes of our past where we are tricked by the people in power to fight on their behalf to keep them powerful.
THE POINT OF THE PREFACE
The point isn’t to wax on about our theoretical rights, it's to examine why we don’t view our consent as necessary anymore––and why our leaders don’t either. The preface of the Declaration of Independence is problematic to implement policy, quickly. Those pesky people with their non-expert or elite opinions really slow down “progress” or at least the fathers of the progressive movement thought so.
Woodrow Wilson wrote, “If you want to understand the real Declaration of
Independence, do not repeat the preface.”
Read it for yourself and you decide.
On July 4, 1914, President Wilson expanded on that in a speech on the Declaration of Independence and America’s role in the world and minces no words when he clearly rejects the founding principles:
Liberty does not consist, my fellow-citizens, in mere general declarations of the rights of man. It consists in the translation of those declarations into definite action. Therefore, standing here where the declaration was adopted, reading its businesslike sentences, we ought to ask ourselves what there is in it for us. There is nothing in it for us unless we can translate it into the terms of our own conditions and of our own lives. We must reduce it to what the lawyers call a bill of particulars. It contains a bill of particulars, but the bill of particulars of 1776. If we would keep it alive, we must fill it with a bill of particulars of the year 1914.
“It is not patriotic to concert measures against one another; it is patriotic to concert measures for one another.”
Terrifying. Imagine dear reader if that was a quote from someone you politically loathe like Donald Trump or Nancy Pelosi. Would you trust they have your interest in mind?
Mind you that women got the right to vote in 1920. The Susan B. Anthony Amendment was first introduced in 1878. Woodrow Wilson began his Presidental tenure in 1913. Thanks in part to World War I and women literally holding down the fort and manufacturing/logistics for the war effort they were deemed worthy of the vote only after prolonged protests in DC, which advocates for the vote were widely condemned as unpatriotic until it became so untenable for and the gaslighting had reached epic proportions that sheer public will snapped back.
Thank God, President Lincoln had the backbone to draw on the universal truths of the Declaration of Independence and didn’t cast the preface aside as the country was falling into chaos. We deserve universal truths, not dictatorial egomaniacs like Woodrow Wilson who think they can better write the course of human history.
Consent of the governed, boom.
We are so lucky that we live in a time that we escaped the racist and fascist whims of a President that was protected by (shielded by) the Press. But we should never forget, the inclination to cover up the power grabs of those with progressive views in power by those who are supposed to shine a light on what the powerful are doing––regardless of what playing ball for access may or may not get them.
I know for a fact that most of you reading this will balk at that statement. After all, myself included, most conservatives feel the Press doesn’t play it straight. But, it is nice to know during Republican stints of power that our Press does have the investigative skills and backbone to speak truth to power. I only hope that we can get back to a time when that standard applies to everybody, not just the people with which we don’t agree.
“If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.” - James Madison
WHAT’S WITH THE HISTORY LESSON
We don’t see ourselves as having the agency to determine our lives vis a vis government. We are on autopilot or feel too small in the grand scheme of things. It’s only under extreme pressure that we are drawn to action. Look at the repressive government control in Cuba, look at extreme lockdown measures in Australia, look at equity politics in South Africa. People are willing to put up with suffering much like our founders acknowledged in the Federalist Papers for far longer than we would be comfortable acknowledging. We shouldn’t wait for things to get so bad, we should be playing an active role in our community’s governance today.
YOUR CONSENT ALWAYS MATTERS
Just like you don’t want douchebags in your pants you don’t want political charlatans in your pockets. Every woman has experienced embarrassment from an unwanted sexual encounter. Some annoying, group that in with catcalling. Some rage-inducing, like having your bra snapped in any public setting. Others silencing, like being pinned down against your will and the fear of not knowing what will come next. We have fought so hard for our rights, we are so damn lucky that we have brave women that we can thank for having fought for the rights we enjoy now. But I implore you all to not limit our political power to our reproductive rights. Yes, it is important, yes it is cause for a great schism in the feminist movement, but it only benefits the men.
Men who I believe would have this debate played out forever to silence us on all other matters. We are smarter than that. A disagreement on outcomes in this particular hot button issue shouldn’t be cause for discounting areas where we can come together. This is not zero-sum.
A NOTE ON FACTIONS
It’s human nature to group. There is no fixing that. No amount of reprogramming or dehumanizing tactics can make a rational human not see differences. This is why I agree that colorblindness is a fallacy, but also why I believe that there is such a thing as a protected class. We need legal remedies to ensure no one is discriminated against because of how they were born. For example, women have babies. Men don’t. Having a baby is not an insignificant ordeal and that is not a disqualifying life event from being a member of the working class.
Our differences are what make us, us. I love associating with women’s groups. That doesn’t mean I hate men or that I don’t want them to be happy or succeed. I have a husband and a son! I just find so much joy and comradery in being with other people that have experienced life and the same unique struggles as I have. I’m proud to be a woman and I’m proud to advocate for the things that women need that we have collectively all identified as opportunity gaps.
Don’t be afraid of factions. It’s normal human behavior, but don’t judge people on things they can’t control. There is a reason we have a right to free association. Squad up and be nice to others.
MENTAL HEALTH
Simone Biles said she felt the weight of the world on her shoulders. Gah, how relatable is that? On the merits, very. In practice, few of us can even fathom what that means.
YOU AREN’T ‘TOUGH’ ENOUGH
You know who Simone Biles is, she probably doesn’t know who you are. That’s the difference between someone who really feels like they have the whole weight of the world on their shoulders and... well a normal like you and me.
During the team competition Tuesday, Biles didn't know where she was in the air on a vault, a state of disorientation gymnasts call “the twisties.” ”I was just like, shaking. … I've never felt like this going into competition before.”
My big takeaway from this was that she had always in the past known her spatial environment in complex gymnastic maneuvers. I don’t know about you but I lose my spatial reckoning after spinning around like 4 times with my toddler without my feet leaving the ground. There is something about expertise and greatness. There are times when you know you don’t have it that day. You could be proud and ruin the team’s chances to win for your own ego. Or you could think of the team. She thought of the team. That’s good enough for me and she didn’t owe me anything anyway.
In conclusion, fuck you, Charlie Kirk! What have you done with your life but scam the Boomers, you fucking nerd. #SocialismSucksAndSoDoYou
SARAH’S MEDIA DIET
To Listen:
Fifth Column – 323 w/ Jonathan Rauch “Saving Truth, CRT Martyrs, Equal But Separate”
Word on Fire – WOF 292: Bishop Barron Presents: Jessica Hooten Wilson
Honestly - A 21st Century Witch Hunt
To Read:
NYT – Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg’s Partnership Did Not Survive Trump
NYP – How ‘equity’ ideology plunged South Africa into inequality and chaos
To Watch:
TedTalk by Eric Liu – Why Ordinary People Need To Understand Power
Instagram Story by Carlz J Söda – [Australia] LOCKDOWN 5 REALITY
Amazon Prime - Unforgotten: Season Two
My Playlist:
Hell No, Ingrid Michaelson
America’s Sweetheart, Elle King
The Slip will return in two weeks.
Until next time LYLAS,
- Sarah