The Pledge of Allegiance in the Mouth of Trumpists Is Mendacious

When Trumpists recite the Pledge of Allegiance, what meaning does it have?  The pledge has always been aspirational in that its description of our republic, while rooted part in fact and part in folklore, has never reflected the reality of our country.  

Today, when Trump and his supporters recite the pledge, the words are for liberals mocking, so opposite to Trump's vision, and to the reality that the poor, people of color, and even the middle class face every day of their lives.  

We all know the words of the pledge:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of American and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Let's start from the end: "with liberty and justice for all."  For the third of our countrymen who are either poor or people of color (the poor - 12.4% or 42 million; people of color - 27% or 92 million - there is substantial overlap of the two categories), there is very little liberty and justice.  And if Trump is elected it will get even worse as he has no regard for liberty and justice for all.

Liberty means having the opportunity to pursue life, to pursue your dreams.  But for this segment of our citizens, there is precious little opportunity, starting from the brutal fact that they don't have true educational opportunity, and without that there is no way forward.

Justice means both justice in courts of law and social justice – that people are treated fairly, with equality.  While the courts may treat the poor and people of color fairly, they experience little social justice, either in that they are treated with inequality in many forms of government action, or in the fact that the enforcers of the law - the police - do not treat them with equality.  It is ironic that so many Americans – Trump supporters – complain that the government favors the poor and people of color with its largesse, whereas the truth is quite different.  Yes, there are many programs that focus on these groups, but that is far from telling the whole picture.

"Indivisible."  Our country is more divided, and more deeply, than at any time in our history, with the exception of the Civil War.  In the past, regardless of regional or class differences, people felt we were all Americans and all came together in moments of crisis.  We were able to agree to disagree.

Today, because of Trump, that is no longer the case.  The two almost equally divided halves of this country do not agree to disagree.  Each side feels the other is traitorous and a danger to the country's future.  There is frequent talk of civil war in the future.  It is only because of the strength of Mike Pence's commitment to the Constitution that this country was not plunged into a constitutional crisis on January 6, 2012, which could easily have turned violent, with military intervention.

And what meaning does "one nation under God" have?   It is true that 74% of Americans report that they believe in God.  But what does that mean?  Even in the "born again" Evangelical heyday, when kids wore wristbands that asked, "What would Jesus do?" believers did not act as Jesus would have acted.  It was a sad farce.  It would unfortunately be more accurate to say that, in reality, we are a God-less nation.  That money and greed rule, not God.

We are a nation that has lost its way, even the imperfect way that we achieved in the 20th century.  Even before Trump, our social fabric, our social contract, was coming undone.  It started with Reagan.  But under Trump's influence, half the nation has become the captive of fake news (ironically they call the real news "fake").  They have become believers of the "big lie" promoted by Trump.  For them, there is no commonality with liberal Americans or people of color or the poor.

Where we as a country go from here I wouldn't hazard a guess.  My feeling though is that we will survive, that Trumpism will go the way of other aberrations as a new generation comes of age.  I certainly hope that is the case.  America was once justifiably a light to other nations and the downtrodden of the world.  It was never perfect, but it was a lot better than most places on Earth.  

I hope that the day comes when that is true again and the Pledge of Allegiance has regained real meaning. 

Trump's Provable Lie

Donal Trump has finally given this country a gift:  he has lied - made a baseless claim - about something about which there can be no question that he has lied.  Everyone, even his most ardent supporters, will have to agree that he has lied.

Recently, Trump claimed in a post on his Truth Social online account that Nikki Haley was not eligible to become president because her parents were not U.S. citizens when she was born.  He did this by reposting an article from @gatewaypundit based on constitutional interpretation by @paulingrassia making this claim.

What a perfect example of misinformation and how it becomes viral in social media.

The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution clearly states that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens."  Thus children born in the U.S. of a parent or parents who are not U.S. citizens are nevertheless U.S. citizens.  PERIOD.  No ifs, ands, or buts.  Nikki Haley is a "natural-born" U.S. citizen and thus eligible to be president.

The post refers to the 12th Amendment, but the 12th Amendment stipulates how the Electoral College works.  It has nothing to do with citizenship.

Trump may claim in the future that he was just reposting this article.  No, by reposting the article with no caveats he endorsed it and thus it became a statement of his.  Or he may say, "I'm not a legal scholar; I don't know."  Well, it is the responsibility of anyone, certainly someone running for President, to check facts before broadcasting them.

Most of Trump's lies are not so easily proven to be lies.  But here you have the clear, unambiguous wording of the Constitution.  It is not a matter of interpretation.

He should be called on this.

And yes, I'm back.  I don't know how often I will be posting, but I have spent time in the "wilderness" and have no more craving for the acknowledgment of others.  My faith is absolute; there is no more fear.  I am just sharing my opinions, my thoughts.

Will the Real RINO Stand Up?

Trump and his allies have been extremely effective at changing the meaning of words in the minds of their supporters.   Thus, for example, "fake" news came to define any news from sources other than Fox News, Trump, and his allies.   While just the opposite was in fact true. The fake news is what came out of their mouths.   The other news was the truth. 

The same is true for the way RINO has been applied.   It has become the epithet for any Republican who disagrees with the Trump mantra. 

In fact, it is Trump and his allies who are truly RINOs – Republicans in name only.   Because what they stand for is not an expression or outgrowth of the traditional policy positions of the Republican Party nor what the Party has stood for during its history. 

The question that every American must ask is, how has Trump been able to so successfully manipulate the minds and hearts of the Republican base.   And we're talking not just die-hard Trump supporters, but almost the entire Republican voting base, as has been shown in recent polls regarding the "truth' of the stolen election claim. 

There are multiple reasons.   But two predominate.   The first is that a large block of these  voters,  formerly Democratic working class voters, carried huge grievances against the Democratic Party because they felt the Party had failed them and was more concerned with the plight of Blacks.   And so when Trump came and vociferously championed their cause, they supported him and continue to do so, even though he has not improved their lives in any way and actually has often acted in ways contrary to their interests. 

Second, the existence of Fox News and right-wing alternative media sources.   Before the advent of cable TV and the internet, everyone in the country got their national news from the Big 3 networks, which were solidly middle-of-the-road, nonpartisan, in their approach to the news.   The national nightly news anchors were respected by a broad spectrum of Americans.   Someone like Trump with fringe ideas could yell and scream all they wanted, but no one would hear them because their voice wasn't amplified by news coverage. 

Now, everyone watches the news that fits their beliefs.   And so Republicans watch Fox News and those on the far right have their internet outlets that fan their beliefs.   These media not only amplify the voice of Trump and his allies, but they give them credibility by mouthing their positions as their own.   The combination of their faith in Trump and their faith in their chosen media outlet makes the "fake" news phenomenon possible. 

Trump once said that he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and he wouldn't loose any voters.   That is not only probably true but it shows how far the brainwashing of Republicans has gone and that Trump is well aware of his power. 

There is nothing that I can imagine happening that will shake the trust of the vast majority of Republicans in Trump and his allies.   Even after Germany's loss in WWII, most Germans did not renounce their faith in Hitler.   They did not turn on him.   I fear the attachment of most Republicans to Trump lies in this same vein and they will never abandon him. 

The State of American Democracy, the Body Politic

Over the course of almost 250 years, American democracy has often been a raucous place, both at the level of the citizenry and elected officials.   But throughout those years, despite the divisions caused in our country by racism, income inequality, and ethnic bigotry, when it came time for receiving the results of elections, they have always been respected.   Majority rule has prevailed.   

And despite many people, especially Blacks, having ample cause to be aggrieved by the physical, psychic, or economic violence they experienced, America has been a place of overwhelmingly peaceful coexistence, on the surface.   Yes, there have been riots and protests that have resulted usually from cataclysmic events, but these disturbances generally did not result in a hardening of the divisions among us. 

The centripetal force has been greater than the centrifugal force.   One could be cynical and say that the centripetal force was mostly due to the aggrieved's weakness.   While that was certainly a factor, I believe that the fact that people felt that we were all Americans, regardless of our backgrounds and place of origin, and that we shared a history even though it was not really ours, because we believed in the promise of America regardless how distant it was – this was the essence of the centripetal force.   There was at some level a belief in the good-hearted nature of the body politic, there was hope, despite all the nastiness that was observed at an individual or even group level. 

The threat to our democracy now is not coming from these traditionally aggrieved groups, the classic source of revolution, but ironically from those who have been privileged but feel threatened by the aggrieved groups. 

Starting during the Reagan years, the attitude of those on the right began to harden.   The sense of conviviality with their opponents, and later even civility, was lost.   People became angry.

Partly it stemmed from Reagan's famous line that, "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."  And so the division came to be not just the traditional liberal/conservative argument about big government v small government, but government v private rights, often the de facto rights of white privilege.   

The other factor was the advent of Lee Atwater and his combative, dirty tricks, form of campaigning.   This was the beginning of the Republican's national embrace of the big lie, racial fear-mongering, smears and winning at all costs. 

And so over the next three decades, the Republicans became obstructionists when they weren't in power because they saw that as the best way to win the next election, by making it difficult if not impossible for the Democrats to make good on their promises.   Bi-partisanship was out the door, except when they were in power. 

With the election of Obama, this principle reached a fever pitch.    The epitome was probably Senator McConnell's not giving Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, a hearing, flouting all precedent, the excuse being a presidential election 7 1/2 months off. 

The election of Obama did something else.   The election of a Black President enabled the Republicans to really put fear into the hearts and minds of their base – the fear of whites losing their privileged position in American society and workplace.   Now not only were legislators in Washington nasty, people on the streets became nasty. 

But that was all just rehearsal for the real "show" - the election and presidency of Donald Trump.   Trump was able to build on the long held-in-check fears and bigotry of many Americans – towards non-whites, be they Blacks, Hispanics, or Muslims and their distrust of government, and Evangelicals' frustration at being excluded from the halls of power and not being listened to by the larger society – and turn his base and the majority of Republicans into a mob that hates liberals and distrusts the government as an agent of liberals.   He gave bigotry, distrust, and hatred legitimacy; people no longer needed to keep their voices to themselves.

The explosion of social media during this same period provided an unchecked petri dish for the expansion this animus, misinformation, and outright lies into the deepest recesses of the minds of most Republicans.   That this is no longer just the state of what was thought of as Trump's core base can be seen in the fact that 75% of Republicans surveyed by PEW Research in January 2021 believed that the election of President Biden was not legitimate; they bought the Trump argument, they bought the fake news. 

We have reached a point in the public arena where most Republicans will believe anything they are told by Trump, his allies, and FOX News, and will not believe anything the Democrats or the rest of the media says to the contrary.   What is up is down for them; there is no objective truth.  Irrationality has been mainstreamed.

This distrust has even impacted the legitimacy of government and science regarding efforts to control the pandemic.  The misinformation coursing through social media regarding the vaccine is beyond bizarre, yet that is what these people believe.   And when Republican leaders tell them that vaccine mandates and mask mandates are an assault on their Constitutional freedoms, they believe that too.

Trump said once during the campaign that "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters. "   That unfortunately might be true.   It is hard to imagine anything happening that would discredit Trump and his sycophantic allies in the eyes of their base, because all Trump has to do is label the truth "fake news" and his minions will believe him. 

The latest act of hypocritical mendacity by the Republican leadership is that they are calling President Biden to task for not meeting his campaign pledge to control the virus, when it is their stand against vaccine mandates and mask mandates that has removed the only power he potentially had to control the virus.   The large number of unvaccinated Americans, and thus the ongoing surges, is largely a product of their failure to support science and proven epidemiological methods.

Regardless whether Democrats manage to maintain power in the midterms and 2024, it is highly likely, given Republican gerrymandering and the situation I've described, that Congress will remain evenly and combatively divided.   I fear we will have reached a situation in which the electorate, the body politic, is divided more deeply than at any time in our history, except for the Civil War. 

And I can think of nothing that would turn the tide, barring a near-total turnabout by Republican elected officials.   But even when Trump at some point ceases to be in the picture,  and it is inevitable that that will occur, it is pretty clear that they will not lead but instead pander to their base in order to get elected.   They have created a monster and it must be fed.   They have no ethics and they have no shame. 

It seems likely that we are struck with this dynamic until there is a generational change or some major event occurs that shakes up the status quo.   How sad. 

Trump and the Vaccine Conundrum

Where is Trump when you need him?  Did I really say that?

Unfortunately, yes.  There is only one person who could convince most of the rest of the country to get vaccinated – Trump.  If he came out with a strong PSA, stressing his role in getting the vaccines developed and approved ASAP to stop the virus from crippling our country, and urging his supporters to do their patriotic duty and get vaccinated, that probably would make a major difference. 

Between his personalizing the issue and making it an act of patriotism, his supporters would probably march lock-step to the vaccination clinics. 

This is really our only hope.  There is no chance that the federal government, or most state governments, will follow the example of New York City and San Francisco and impose vaccination passport mandates.  That and a renewed mask mandate would have sufficed to get the virus under control again.  But that's not going to happen. 

So someone must appeal to Trump.  This is no time for politics or self-righteousness.  Right now, we need Trump.   

President Biden can't make that appeal because Trump doesn't recognize him.  And it can't be one of his allies.  It must be someone from the other side who comes to him asking for his help. And who better to make the appeal probably than Dr. Fauci?  Someone Trump respects despite past disagreements.

The Present Holding Pattern

I haven't written a post in a month.   The reason is that there is really nothing new to post about.   

1.   Republicans are being true to their conversion to Trumpism, whether at the national or state level (although it is more rabid at the state  level).   In Congress, they are either just interested in blocking Biden's agenda, regardless of the interests of their constituents, whose interests they are supposed to represent.   Or they continue to further the falsehood that Biden won the election fraudulently and the January 6 storming of the capitol had nothing to do with Trump and the people in the riot were just patriots. 

I would love to see a video that juxtaposed Speaker McCarthy's statements on January 6 and immediately thereafter, and his statements now.   You can't even call it a shift.   It's a total reversal from truth to lies.  The man and his party have no shame, no ethics.

2.   The virus is doing its thing, and the millions of unvaccinated people in the US are enabling it to have another surge with the Delta variant which is causing, in areas with low vaccination rates, numbers of cases to rival the worst part of the pandemic.   And when these unvaccinated people get infected and travel to areas with high vaccination rates and partake in crowded indoor activities (restaurants, bars, dance clubs), even those vaccinated (who aren't wearing masks anymore) get infected. 

There is no indication that anything much will change on this front.   Many people who choose not to be vaccinated are adamant.   Some are undecided still, and so perhaps they will get the shots, but the majority are in the first group. 

Bottom line, while we were never going to be free of the virus, it looks like our return to normal in most areas of the country is a thing of the past.   Even the vaccinated will have to wear a mask indoors, certainly in a reasonably crowded venue.   

Some places, like Broadway theaters, are requiring people to be fully vaccinated and wear masks in order to attend.  Some employers are requiring works to be vaccinated,  All indoor venues, except those that are essential, should have this requirement.   This includes airlines.   And if they aren't essential, all visitors must be required to wear a mask. 

3.   No news on the climate change front.   We continue to experience increased numbers of and severity of natural disasters, whether it's heat, rain, flooding, drought, wildfires, etc.   As with the virus, too many people take no responsibility for their actions and efforts by the government will have minimal impact, and too late.   We are it seems past the tipping point and the only question is how bad will it get.   That's the only thing we/government can impact now. 

So we as a country and as a government are in a stalemated, holding, pattern.   It is in all regards a sad state of affairs.   Whatever euphoria and hope there was after Trump lost the election are long since gone.   For the foreseeable future,  posts will come when matters warrant or there is some important observation to make.

Trump as Pandora - The Unleashing of Evil

None of the hate and bigotry, the meanness and self-centeredness, that has become a prominent aspect of our society, our body politic since Trump ascended to the presidency  was created by Trump.  These feelings and tendencies have always existed across a broader section of our society than we would care to admit. 

But until Trump, these feelings were held down by the vast majority of people because such feelings were not approved by society, or better put, by society's leaders - neither those on the left or on the right.  Even before the term "politically correct" was coined, voicing such feelings was not done, except among friends.  Only those on the fringes of society voiced such feelings openly and freely. 

Thus our society with its laws and public presence had the facade of a body politic, of people who agreed to disagree, of a social contract.  Even an underlying racism was held down in most parts of the country.  And that facade was strong enough to withstand the pressures of events, even riots. 

But that has all changed.  Trump has opened the proverbial Pandora's box.  And all the venomous feelings that had been held down were given fresh air to breathe and permission to let themselves be heard.   

Trump as President, as this country's leader elected by basically half of the people, saw that his route to power and control was to give voice to these long-denied feelings.  It doesn't matter where Trump stood on these issues as a person.  He knew that by harnessing the energy of these pent-up feelings that he would have the undying loyalty of his base and thus the support to be the autocrat that he was. 

Trump was defeated in the 2020 Presidential election by a good, decent man, who good, decent people rallied behind.  But the fact that half of the people again voted for Trump is not just a consistent sign of our divided politic (the popular vote in most presidential elections in recent times has been very close), but it shows that half the people were more attracted to than repelled by his venom. 

And the actions of Republican elected officials in both state legislatures and Congress show the power that he still wields due to the continuing undying loyalty of not just his base but the majority of the Republican Party.  A just released, well-respected, Monmouth University poll found that 65% of Republicans believe that Biden won because of voter fraud. 

I wrote more than 15 years ago that the new radical Republicans have become masters of the Big Lie, and like Joe McCarthy they had no shame.  That perspective within the Party has morphed into a monster that is out of control, that knows no bounds. 

Last December I wrote a post, "Where Do We Go from Here?" and stated, "Even if Trump ends up in jail, convicted of tax fraud or whatever, it won't make a difference to his minions.  Indeed, they will just think he was unjustly convicted; a victim of the very establishment that he fought against."  There is nothing one can do in the short term to disabuse people of their faith in Trump.  

In world history, leaders who held such sway over their people, such as Hitler or Mussolini, only fell from power because they lost a war.  Even after that, many people continued to revere them as leaders. 

I fear that once Pandora's box is opened there is nothing that anyone can do, beyond hopefully the passage of time, that will return us to a civil society, where we believe that we are all true Americans, where we all agree to disagree, where we support the integrity of our democratic institutions, and where we let the majority rule.  Until such time, it's going to be a bumpy ride. 

Facebook's Ban of Trump Is Not an Infringement of Free Speech

Over the next few months, Facebook's Oversight Board of thinkers from around the world will decide whether Facebook's ban on Trump should stand or whether he should be let back on.   Academic free speech advocates are already suggesting that the Board may well be more responsive to free speech concerns and reinstate Trump.   And they are clearly happy with this prospect. 

Something has gone very wrong with the concept of free speech protected by the 1st Amendment to our Constitution.   There are two issues here.   The first is, whether lies and misinformation such as Trump engaged in can be prohibited speech.   The second is, how does the advent and impact of social media, as well as cable news, affect the concept of clear and present danger. 

Let me once again remind the reader that the 1st Amendment's right of free speech is not absolute, just as none of the rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights is absolute.   The court has long held that certain types of injurious speech can be regulated.   Whether it's false advertising, libel or slander, obscenity, or gag orders relating to a court case, the court has approved regulating speech when there is a clear danger of harm to others or, in the case of gag orders, to the impartial process of jury deliberations.   In such cases, the state's interest in regulating the speech outweighs the protection granted by the 1st Amendment.   

Clearly Trump's lies and misinformation made it virtually impossible for people who believe him, he was the President after all, to render a reasoned verdict on who they should vote for.   All politicians lie occasionally, including Presidents, but the systematic manipulation of facts by equating lies with "alternative facts" and the truth as "fake news" has no precedent, at least in modern American history.   

Trump is an expert proponent of the "big lie," a propaganda theory perfected by the Nazis.  Adolf Hitler in his book, Mein Kampf, wrote of the value of using a lie so huge that no one would believe that one would have "the impudence to distort the truth so infamously."   

Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, went on to expand, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

If the reader things my Nazi reference is uncalled for, Trump stated very clearly to Leslie Stahl of 60 Minutes that his purpose in bashing the press, calling it "fake news," was to discredit them, to create a reality in which his supporters would not believe the allegations that he knew would be made against him by his opponents.   This is a classic use of the big lie.

But free speech advocates argue against regulating political speech because it does not harm someone, it is an exchange of ideas, which is critical to the proper functioning of a democracy.   They say there is no threat of "imminent lawless action" or "clear and present danger" which the Court has required.   Forgetting that those standards have been used by the Court to judge speech that advocates the use of force or violation of the law.   And so regardless how outrageous or damaging, free speech advocates claim he should be allowed to speak for the sake of our democracy. 

What is the impact of technology, of social media, on discussing this question?  As recently as 25 years ago, a politician or President could have made the kind of comments Trump makes routinely and it would have had little effect because it would have gotten little exposure and/or he would have been exposed for what he is in the news, both print and TV.   All news media, at least major ones, were mainstream, whether liberal or conservative. 

But with the advent of Fox News in 1996, and then the social media platforms of Twitter and Facebook in 2006 and 2004 respectively, the ability of someone to propagate their own fake news, their big lie, went viral.   As we've seen with COVID-19 and the election, there are innumerable right-wing media outlets that will propagate the lies and misinformation of the President.   And through social media such as Twitter and Facebook, the President had the ability of directly communicating with his millions of followers, and so they got the word from him undiluted and unquestioned.  The result was disastrous.

Regarding the election, although no one was "harmed" in the classic sense such as false advertising or libel, this situation is more analogous to the gag order.   There it is the process of justice that must be protected and kept impartial.   Here it is the process of the election, which while certainly not impartial, must allow people to exercise a choice, to reason.   That is what lies behind the concept of freedom of speech and its essential nature to democracy. 

And so I would argue that Trump's constant stream of lies and misinformation through social and other media did and does constitute a clear and present danger to the process of our elections, which is the process of democracy.   And so his speech can be prohibited. 

Regarding the pandemic, his lies and misinformation not just presented a clear and present danger, but it did in fact result in great harm to millions of people, indeed to our entire country.  We're not just talking about those who died, or those who have been infected, were talking about the effect of the pandemic on people's lives and their financial and psychological well-being.  Such speech can and should be prohibited.

The question then is should his rights be suspended for a short period of time or should he be banned from Facebook?  Given the pathological nature of his lies and misinformation and the fact that it occurred almost daily during his entire presidency, I think there is justification for holding that the ban can and indeed should be permanent.   Even out of office, he poses a huge potential threat to our democracy if he is given a media platform to speak to the people. 

For the sake of our democracy's well-being, the Facebook ban on Trump should be made permanent. 

Trump's 1776 Commission Report - An Extension of Fake News

One of Trump's last acts as President was releasing the report of his 1776 Commission, members of which included no professional historians but did include right-wing conservative activists and "thinkers."  

It's no surprise therefore that just as Trump legitimized his fake news, his alternative facts, by calling the authentic mainstream news fake news, this report lambasts liberals and progressives for hijacking the founding documents and the intentions of the founders and indoctrinating the youth of this country with liberalism and instead calls its highly conservative version of our founding as being the real facts.   It even disputes the impact of slavery on the founders and our history and criticizes the Civil Rights movement as not being true to the founders' intentions. 

When I read a summary of some of the reports main "findings" I thought it sounded suspiciously like the writing of Matthew Spalding in his We Still Hold These Truths: Rediscovering Our Principles.   And so I Googled whether he was on the commission.   He was in fact the Executive Director. 

This right-wing take on our founding documents and the founders is a travesty of historical research and interpretation.   When Spalding's book was published in 2009, I was aghast because it had the same title as my 2004 book, We Still Hold These Truths: An American Manifesto. 

When I edited the Wikipedia entry for "We Still Hold These Truths" to include information about my book - it just had included Spalding's book - here is what I said:

"Hirsch has a very different reading of those principles found in our founding documents. This is not as surprising as it may appear, for as Hirsch says in his book, 'in [the Declaration’s] interpretation lies the core of both the Liberal and Conservative ideologies that have run through American political life and the tension between them.'"

"Hirsch looks at the words of the Declaration and finds an all-embracing, profoundly Liberal, statement of the equality of all people and that all have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And that, as stated in the Declaration, the role of government is to secure these rights. Hirsch then goes on to use the Declaration of Independence as a touchstone to examine nine key areas of government policy." 

"Ironically, just as Spalding feels that Progressives eroded the founding principles, Hirsch believes that, “our nation stands at a crossroad. There is a radical Republican movement afoot to fundamentally alter the balance that our system has struck between private rights, the public good, and government. The issue is not simply big versus small government, high versus low taxes. At risk is the heart of our democracy, our historic values.” 

"Hirsch states that current Republicans focus solely on rights of the individual, quite divorced from their responsibilities as citizens and from the rights of others and the common good. Since the Declaration states that all men are created equal and all have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the system can only work if one says that each person has this liberty so long as it does not harm others or impinge on the rights of others. This last proposition is in fact the basis for all government laws and regulation, whether of individuals or corporations. "

President Biden almost immediately disbanded the 1776 Commission, but its report will probably not just gather dust, as most reports do, because the far right loves to be able to justify their beliefs and actions based on the Constitution.   They love the legitimacy it confers. 

Whereas for some perverse reason, liberals and progressives do that seek to actively use our founding documents to support their cause.   Perhaps they feel it's so obvious; but to much of the country obviously that is not the case.   Whenever I've sent my book to top Democratic politicians, I've only gotten an acknowledgment at best, despite a pre-publication endorsement from James Fallows, the well-respected national correspondent for The Atlantic.   Liberals do not flock to my book for support like the far right flocks to Spalding's book.