Originally written on July 8, 2017

Recently, I noted something that had totally escaped me. It was while watching a discussion group on TV when one of the commentators was responding to the panel’s duty progressive apologist and brought up the Declaration of Independence. The discussion had been about the First Amendment rights of religious organizations and was obviously about to go off in the direction of Natural Rights and the notion of religion as a fundamental consideration of the founding of our nation. The duty apologist immediately began to babble and interject, and did manage to derail the commentary and steer it toward another line of discourse. I was intrigued! Then it hit me why progressives will discuss the Constitution all day long, but are loathe to engage in any substantive way on matters regarding the Declaration of Independence. If you understand the Declaration, you may be ahead of me, but it’s worth the time it takes to run down the rabbit hole on this to see what it is in that Wonderland that so unsettles progressives.

Just what is the Declaration of Independence, anyway? Wasn’t it the letter sent by the Continental Congress to King George III of England informing him that his American colonies had determined his reign was considered tyrannical and was therefore at an end on the American continent? Wasn’t it the sharp stick in the King’s eye that resulted in the Revolutionary War when the King decided he’d had quite enough of a bunch of upstart colonists usurping his authority? Yes, it was that. But, if it was only that, it would be a priceless relic (which it obviously is), it would be a tremendously important historical artifact (which it also is), and perhaps it could be used as a shining example of the kind of mettle it takes to turn an existing order upside down; to spit in the face of the prevailing power structure and shout “No more!” But, the Declaration of Independence is much, much more, which is exactly why progressives almost refuse to be drawn into discussions that regard it.

The issue is not about what the Declaration of Independence was, as it was originally written and intended, but what became of it subsequent to the formation of the United States of America as a cohesive national and sovereign entity. Instead of enshrining the Declaration in a museum and trotting it out every Independence Day for general admiration, and instead of just replicating the Declaration in Congressionally issued Bibles and school texts (which was done) our founders did something extraordinary. They made the Declaration of Indepen-dence the bedrock of the legal foundation of our nation. If you want proof of the truth of that statement, go to any law library and find US Code, Volume 1. It’s the first Congressionally mandated book of law of our nation. The very first thing you see in 1 USC is a replica or photo of the Declaration of Independence, followed by the transcribed text. The next three things you’ll see in 1 USC are, in order, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, and the Constitution of the United States of America. Why are those four documents in the US Code? Even more, why are they the first things there? What is the significance of their order in 1 USC?

All legal systems have something that forms the basis of their philosophic underpinnings. In most nations that were once a part of the British Empire that basis is English Common Law. Indeed, the US Code is also based in English Common Law, but our founders and Congress determined we needed something more. We needed something unique to our own national experience. Instead of having the first document in 1 USC be the Magna Carta and the second be some document that declared English Common Law as our primary source of legality we have those four American-created documents that speak to our unique national identity and outlook.

The first four documents in 1 USC are in order of their creation. That was a purposeful organization, establishing an order of precedence. By being the first, the Declaration of Independence is enshrined in 1 USC as our primary source of law. It is the bedrock upon which all US law rests. The other three documents are subordinate to it, each in its turn. As with all law, the way it works is anything in any document not amended by a successor document or law is still considered in effect. In simple terms, the Declaration of Independence is US law and much of it is still perfectly germane today. Why is that important?

If you study the Constitution you know the bulk of its text defines our government’s roles, responsibilities, procedures, and rituals. There is evidence of philosophy in it, but most of the philosophic part is inferred in the Amendments, not the body of the Constitution itself. Why was it written that way? Because of the Declaration of Independence. When you study the Declaration you should understand. Then, when you put the two together you have a better understanding that the two documents, and those other two that are chronologically earlier and superior in precedence to the Constitution, are not separate entities, but parts of an organic whole.

Progressives don’t like to discuss the Declaration of Independence because many of their arguments for the nation they want America to be are refuted by it. The first part of the Declaration cites “ … the laws of nature and nature’s God.” In the second part there is mention of our “Creator,” and of “unalienable rights,” and that governments derive “ … their just powers from the consent of the governed.” The second section finishes with a bang; a bang no progressive could possibly like: “ . . . 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.” Then, after a long recitation of abuses perpetrated by King George III and the English Parliament there is, in the last section of the Declaration, an appeal to “ … the Supreme Judge of the world …” and a statement of the “ … firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence.” No, progressives don’t like these things.

Imagine, having references to “nature’s God,” to our “Creator,” our “Supreme Judge,” and to “Divine Providence” not just embedded in our nation’s law, but cited as the basis; the bedrock of that law. Progressives have gone to great lengths over the past eight or so decades in convincing Americans there’s no place for God in government, yet, when we just glance at the Declaration of Independence, we immediately can see that’s just not so. Those statements are not about religion, though. They are about faith and belief in God. Regardless of how God was worshipped then and is worshipped now, the Declaration of Independence clearly indicates the acknowledgement of God as the original source of all law.

The Declaration speaks of “laws of nature” – Natural Law. It speaks of “unalienable rights” – Natural Rights. It speaks of the relationship between America’s government and it’s governed and clearly indicates the power of the government is derived from the people, not the other way around. What is there in this document for a progressive to like? It’s completely against all they believe, yet it still lives as the first law of our land.

If we do anything right in the next few years as we set about making America great again (that MAGA thing), we should promote the rediscovery of the Declaration of Independence as the primary foundation of American Law. We all need to teach our friends and neighbors what it is, what it says, and what it means. If we are to rebuff the slow coup of our present government by progressive provocateurs, and by entrenched seditionists in the federal bureaucracy, in academia, and in the media, we all need to get much smarter and to take a visible and vocal stand.

MAGA BABY! Just do it!