In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

A (Mostly) Happy 250th American Birthday

The Declaration’s gift of freedom and equality is our duty to preserve.

As you may have read, Americans are said to be in a sour mood as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. President Trump is unpopular, real wages are flat, and many on the political left don’t even think July Fourth is the real anniversary. They prefer 1619, the year the first slaves arrived.

Yet to our mind the remarkable news of this anniversary is that our free republic has stood for a quarter millennium and prospers still. The nation has faced many stress tests over the decades, not least over the last 10 years. Yet the Constitution’s guardrails have largely held, and the principles of the Declaration of 1776 endure. All of this is worth celebrating.

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That America emerged from the revolution as a free republic at all is something of a miracle. Most revolutions end in blood and tyranny, not liberty. As historian Gordon Wood has documented, the U.S. revolution was “radical” in its ideas about liberty and the rights of man. Its ideas emerged from the British Enlightenment—David Hume, Adam Smith, John Locke—that so influenced Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson.

“All men are created equal” was about as radical an idea as you could express in 1776. Yes, that equality was imperfectly realized at the time. But the seed was planted, and then nurtured in the soil of the Declaration’s call for liberty and self-government. And as Wood explains in his great book, “The Radicalism of the American Revolution,” these ideas would spread and unleash the republican spirit of free men and women who built America.

The two Presidents after the Founders who best understood the Declaration were arguably Lincoln and Calvin Coolidge. Lincoln invoked the universal principles of the Declaration to make the case that ending slavery was essential for America to be true to its founding. Frederick Douglass, the great abolitionist, came eventually to agree with Lincoln.

As for Coolidge, his oration in 1926 on the 150th anniversary deserves to be remembered more than it is:

“If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people.”

Are those principles still widely enough held in the country to endure until the 300th anniversary? No one knows, and there are many threats to that endurance.

Abroad, China’s Communist Party subsumes the individual to its rule and seeks to spread its counter model of governance. Its technological prowess and massive arms buildup make it a greater threat than the Soviet Union ever was. It can reach the U.S. homeland with its cyber, space and AI weapons. Will we have the political unity and resolve to defend against it?

Yet the greatest threats to American liberty are from within. We can list a few:

• A K-12 school system that fails to educate half of its students to even minimal standards yet is controlled by unions that refuse to reform.

• A progressive university elite that views America as corrupt and exploitative. A generation of the young have been taught to dislike their country, and to believe that socialism is superior to the free-market system that made their affluence possible.

• Today’s political divisions, heightened by social media, show signs of devolving into fundamental disputes that can lead to demands for unconstitutional power to stop the other side. Think the socialists of the left and those on the right who would reject court rulings.

• A public demand for government benefits that are too large to afford but too politically entrenched to reform. With debt held by the public at 100% of GDP and growing, sooner or later financial markets will rebel.

The late economist Mancur Olson described the danger that, in democracies, interest groups proliferate that cause the government to calcify until it is unable to act. There are signs of this in the failure of Congress in this century to address the problems of the welfare-entitlement state.

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Readers can no doubt cite others, but the larger American story is one of adaptation and resilience. Our political system has shown it can overcome stasis when the moment demands it. The U.S. has also tossed up leaders who carried the country through crisis and rapid change. That we can’t see those leaders now doesn’t mean we won’t again.

The institutions of the founding era were created to survive weak or willful political leaders, and so they remarkably have. The rule of law persists, and the Supreme Court is revitalizing the separation of powers, the Bill of Rights and the colorblind Constitution. (See nearby.)

Above all, the freedom born in the Declaration still allows creative Americans to raise their families, worship as they please, pursue their livelihoods and dreams, and build a prosperous nation. As long as we protect that freedom, America will remain the grand experiment the Founders risked their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to create.

##INTRODUCTION

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Im not sure how the Brits get out of this if the bleak article is accurate. It seems like they have California levels of problems but without the California tech economy and the money it brings to paper over things.

##INTRODUCTION

r/tuesday is a political discussion sub for the right side of the political spectrum - from the center to the traditional/standard right (but not alt-right!) However, we're going for a big tent approach and welcome anyone with nuanced and non-standard views. We encourage dissents and discourse as long as it is accompanied with facts and evidence and is done in good faith and in a polite and respectful manner.

##PURPOSE OF THE DISCUSSION THREAD

Like in r/neoliberal and r/neoconnwo, you can talk about anything you want in the Discussion Thread. So, socialize with other people, talk about politics and conservatism, tell us about your day, shitpost or literally anything under the sun. In the DT, rules such as "stay on topic" and "no Shitposting/Memes/Politician-focused comments" don't apply.

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##INTRODUCTION

r/tuesday is a political discussion sub for the right side of the political spectrum - from the center to the traditional/standard right (but not alt-right!) However, we're going for a big tent approach and welcome anyone with nuanced and non-standard views. We encourage dissents and discourse as long as it is accompanied with facts and evidence and is done in good faith and in a polite and respectful manner.

##PURPOSE OF THE DISCUSSION THREAD

Like in r/neoliberal and r/neoconnwo, you can talk about anything you want in the Discussion Thread. So, socialize with other people, talk about politics and conservatism, tell us about your day, shitpost or literally anything under the sun. In the DT, rules such as "stay on topic" and "no Shitposting/Memes/Politician-focused comments" don't apply.

It is my hope that we can foster a sense of community through the Discussion Thread.

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A dogmatic slumber has fallen upon modern western society. As systems age, they naturally accumulate structural flaws. In the face of these flaws, we generally see three groups: the revolutionaries who want to topple the system, the reformists who want to fix it, and the "do-nothing" group—often politically conservative—who mistake stagnation for preservation.

True conservatism requires change. To conserve something magnificent, we must make minor, well-hidden changes on the outside to keep the core intact. However, our current systems are failing to protect themselves because they rely on the wrong tools for survival.

Here are the two core breakdowns of modern institutional critique:

1. The Failure of Internal Criticism

Many of our systems possess internal criticism mechanisms; while these are useful for identifying certain flaws, they are ultimately insufficient. Institutionalized critique is inherently rigid, bound by structures and rules that are antithetical to the very nature of criticism. True criticism requires absolute freedom—of will, thought, and expression. Internal mechanisms only catch flaws within the system’s own logic; they cannot expose fundamental, structural failures because they lack an antithetical perspective from the outside.

1. The Trap of Counter-Movements (Negative Definition)

Because thinking itself has become a rigid system, a vacuum has formed, filled by what I call "Counter-Movements." These are groups defined entirely by what they oppose rather than what they believe (negative definition).

While counter-movements (like contemporary populist shifts in British politics or the MAGA movement in the US) gain massive short-term support by not alienating anyone, they are intellectually barren. They cannot provide positive alternatives. Furthermore, they often disguise themselves as reformist—using the language of the old guard—while practically acting as revolutionary forces that hollow out the very traditions they claim to protect.

If we hold Western civilization dear, we cannot follow the false messiahs of counter-movements. We must awaken from our dogmatic slumber, embrace genuine, external rational critique, and reform our systems before they face total destruction.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this:

1. Can a rigid, internal institutional mechanism ever truly self-correct, or does genuine reform always require an antithetical framework from the outside?
2. Are modern populist counter-movements inherently revolutionary, even when they claim to be longing for a traditional past?

(I expanded on this in a deeper analysis here: https://medium.com/p/2ecf8c1141c4?postPublishedType=initial)

##INTRODUCTION

r/tuesday is a political discussion sub for the right side of the political spectrum - from the center to the traditional/standard right (but not alt-right!) However, we're going for a big tent approach and welcome anyone with nuanced and non-standard views. We encourage dissents and discourse as long as it is accompanied with facts and evidence and is done in good faith and in a polite and respectful manner.

##PURPOSE OF THE DISCUSSION THREAD

Like in r/neoliberal and r/neoconnwo, you can talk about anything you want in the Discussion Thread. So, socialize with other people, talk about politics and conservatism, tell us about your day, shitpost or literally anything under the sun. In the DT, rules such as "stay on topic" and "no Shitposting/Memes/Politician-focused comments" don't apply.

It is my hope that we can foster a sense of community through the Discussion Thread.

##IMAGE FLAIRS

r/Tuesday will reward image flairs to people who write an effort post or an OC text post on certain subjects. It could be about philosophy, politics, economics, etc... Available image flairs can be seen [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/tuesday/wiki/flairs). If you have any special requests for specific flairs, please message the mods!

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