As America approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I think it is timely and important to address this topic.
In a compellingly written declaration for the ages, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas highlighted the dangers of Progressivism to our American constitutional form of government. The premise of his statement is that the values enshrined in the Declaration of Independence are no longer popular among many Americans who are foolishly open to progressivism taking their place. ‘Progressivism’ is a dishonest term which masks the brutal atheistic socialism of Nazism and Soviet Communism.
The dangers of Progressivism include an unlimited expansion of government power that stifles liberty and creates highly inefficient bureaucracies, coupled with the scornful dismissal of traditional American values.
Progressivism holds as its central premise the belief that our rights flow from an “enlightened” and “benevolent” government which serves as a replacement for God who, in the secular view of Progressivism, does not exist.
The Declaration directly contradicts that premise declaring that our natural, unalienable rights flow not from man or government but from God. That is why the values enshrined in the Declaration cannot ultimately coexist with Progressivism. They are directly antithetical and reflect a diametrically opposed world view and concept of ‘Nature and Nature’s God,’ to employ Thomas Jefferson’s eternal phrase.
There has simply never been a founding document like our Declaration of Independence, enshrining as it does one of the most profound principles in history:
“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…”
Jefferson was a brilliant man and there can be no doubt that, as he sat there in the candlelight, dipped his quill pen in ink, and began his beautiful cursive, he fully understood that this principle of God-given equality he was laying down certainly did not exist in the colonies at the time he authored the document, or likely would during the period of his lifetime. We know that this principle of equality would, in fact, not be fully realized for another 150 years in this country.
But, to me, that is what makes so astounding his inclusion of such a principle in the Declaration, the founding document of our fledgling nation, a principle that was later imbedded in our Constitution, our Supreme Court jurisprudence and in the DNA of our historical and cultural patrimony handed down to us from our brave and farsighted Founders.
That Jefferson would have the wisdom, foresight, courage, and moral foundation to boldly include the principle that—no matter when it may be fully achieved—equality was the fundamental and surpassing ideal. No nation in world history had ever included as part of the very blueprint of its government the belief that all its citizens were created by God and all of them were created equal.
Something else I have considered: Jefferson wrote that “we hold these truths to be self evident…”
Jefferson had a masterful command of the language and for him to invoke the words “self-evident” in this context means he intended to place the truths forming the foundation of this principle of equality beyond debate. They were settled; Were so clear that anyone could understand and recognize them.
Returning to Justice Thomas.
He makes the point that the century of world Progressivism “did not go well. The European system that President Woodrow Wilson and the progressives scolded Americans for not adopting, which he called nearly perfect, led to the governments that caused the most awful century the world has ever seen. Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, and Mao all were intertwined with the rise of progressivism, and all were opposed to the natural rights on which our Declaration is based. Many progressives expressed admiration for each of them (these leaders) shortly before their governments killed tens of millions of people.”
Far from the progressive delusion that our Declaration has kept us from achieving “higher” forms of government, it has done the opposite. Grounding our Declaration in the sacred and transcendent belief in unalienable, God-given natural rights directly blocks a government’s ability to crush its people.
If our individual liberty and self-autonomy don’t flow from government, neither can they legitimately be taken by it. By addressing this, Justice Thomas reminds us of why America is such a unique country and why we should be vigilant to see we maintain it.
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