Of Presidents and Kings

On this day on July 4, 1776, the following statement was issued to Great Britain and it’s King: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”  Yes, the group that declared this were rich land owning white men and those that were NOT rich NOT land owning NOR white NOR men had fuck all in the way of rights in this nascent little nation. 

Over time efforts were made to include those who were NOT rich and NOT land owning and NOT white and NOT men but admittedly, I’m getting way ahead of myself. 

 

Anyway, this group declared that men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

 

Yeah, the reality of that has not always lived up to the ideal. So Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness are unalienable Rights given by their creator? Well, that must have been news to the women who were trying to make a life in this new world. 

And the slaves, yeah, this was news to them too.

Also the natives who already lived here when the weird white guys with buckles on their hats showed up, they were shocked to hear this too.  

 

Again, it takes time for the circle of those included in those unalienable Rights to be expanded. It takes time and yeah, some bloodshed. No one said attaining equality for everyone would be easy. 

 

Over the last 2 and a half centuries, the United States of America has in fits and starts moved forward to expand the blessings of liberty to include all who are citizens of this country.  There have been steps backward in that process but the steps forward tended to outnumber the steps back.

 

At least until recently.

 

This past Monday felt like the biggest step back. One of the biggest damn reasons why we issued a Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 was we were sick and tired of being told what to do and how to do it by a king sitting on a throne an ocean away. Then on July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court decides that yeah, maybe we need a king after all? By granting the President immunity from criminal prosecutions for “official acts” means the President can act with total impunity and no regard for consequence.

 

Basically like a king. 

 

Current President Joe Biden issued a statement that he thinks this is a bad idea.

 

Former President Donald Trump is just positively giddy with school boy glee that he doesn’t have to answer for any of the criminal charges against him.  

 

Of course this isn’t the only step the Supreme Court has taken reverse progress to provide the rights of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness to ALL of America’s citizens. 

 

Last week’s reversal of the 1984 Chevron ruling means a loss of protections for citizens to have clean water and air, safe food and medicine and protections against discrimination.  Chances are if you are a rich land owning white man, the overturning of Chevron won’t hurt you much and may in fact put even more money in your pocket. Way to go, rich land owning white men of America! You’ve earned it!

I'm not sure how exactly they did this but apparently other rulings by the Supreme Court made being homeless against the law and bribery is now legal somehow?

What gives?  

The more I know, the more depressed I get.

Today is America's birthday but I don't feel like celebrating.  

I feel like this is too many steps backwards.   

248 years backwards.

We extricated ourselves from a king.

The Supreme Court gives us king.  

And all of us souls who call this country home do not feel that equal anymore.

There are the rich landowning white men. 

And there is everyone else.