July 4 is the day of America’s perennial, “birthday party.” This is the specific date on which America annually, celebrates its victory in the War of Independence from England, and the creation of an independent, sovereign Nation. The celebratory day is, customarily, recognized by fireworks, symbolizing the war, by festivals, parades, parties and joint barbeques.
The creation of a Democratic Republic, by the Founders, was, at the time, a “radical experiment.” There were no longer to be “privileged classes,” (“all men are created, *equal), and, rather than a Monarch or the Church, they created a tri-partite, polity, viz., Executive, (President), Legislative,(Congress), the latter, two branches elected by the vote of the people and, as well, a Judicial branch, (Supreme Court), each with mutual authority to prevent unconstitutional excess (“Checks and Balances) by the other. As opposed to the historical experience with a King, the newly conceived Republic was to be, by and for, the “People.” History recounts that at the last day of the Constitutional Convention, a woman asked, Founder, Benjamin Franklin, “What have you created here?” His now, famous, reply was, “A Republic, if you can keep it.” We would inquire, on America’s birthday of July 4, 2023, whether we have been “keeping it?”
We would, once more, thematically, refer to the sage and prescient statement of another Founder, Thomas Jefferson, later to be elected to the Presidency of the United States. The statement, as we read it, is, essentially, an admonition, whose wisdom and prescience, are demonstrated by current events; and which provide the theme and impetus for this brief essay. Jefferson warned that in order for a democracy to succeed, it requires educated and well-informed citizens. The unfortunate insufficiency of educated and well-informed citizens is at the systemic root of the Nation’s ever-weakening, retention of its basic principles regarding democratic rule.
The Nation has experienced the following traumatic and existential dangers, about which we have copiously written: an incompetent and criminal demagogue turned President, a violent insurrection against the government, by hordes of the Nation’s populist underbelly, the derogation of “truth,” and the exaltation of “alternate facts,” paranoiac, ideational conspiracy mongers, a plethora of criminal and ethical public investigations, the rise of anti-Semitism and gender prejudice, the autocratic denial of privacy to women (abortion rights) the increasing threats of White Christian Militias, systematic police homicidal acts against black citizens, book burning and fascistic censorship, voting interference, the cessation of needed assistance to minorities in higher education, irresponsible opposition to policies to ameliorate global warming, a shameful and immoral paucity in assistance to the poor and needy, the cynically, outrageous, granting of judicial favor to well- financed and powerful interest groups., the deluge of gun ownership and the concomitant pandemic of public homicidal tragedies, but, unfortunately, we could go on, ad infinitum… ad nauseam.
Jefferson, in our view, was “spot on.” We find ourselves, at this July 4 reprise, possessed of sufficient reason to feel morose and be especially, concerned, by the anticipatory, knowledge that the chronic continuance of America’s current populist, malady of endemic, reductionist ignorance, characterizing many citizens, is an empirically, predictable, matter of potential tragic, existential consequence.
Happy Birthday!
-p.
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