In 1776, Thomas Paine set a revolutionary tone rejecting the King: “But where, say some, is the King of America? … as far as we approve of monarchy… in America the law is king.”
The American Revolution replaced the authority of a sovereign with the authority of a written Constitution and a people who govern themselves. Paine’s vision was the bedrock of the American Revolution, a declaration that no person — not a king, not a president, not a general — would stand above the law.
Today, nearly 250 years later, that vision is dimming, not because the words have faded, but because the institutions meant to uphold them have withered. And at the heart of this erosion is a truth too many fear to speak: we are witnessing the collapse of the implicit moral principles of the Declaration, the American promise of liberty under law.
The conduct of America’s current chief executive recalls the cadence of the usurpations of George III, iterated in the July 4, 1776, Declaration of Independence. We have arrived at a George III moment.
July 4, 2025: A People’s Declaration
When in the course of constitutional history, it becomes evident that the executive has turned from protector to predator of the republic, a decent respect for the original Declaration requires a recounting of the abuses, usurpations and betrayals now taking place and a statement of recommitment to those primary principles celebrated each Independence Day.
We reaffirm the Letter of the Declaration of Independence from 1776, as contrasted with the 2025 assault on the government of American people.
1776: “All… are created equal,” the principle of inherent Equality. 2025: Trump has acted contrary to this ideal. He has dismantled Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs across the federal government, military and public education systems, undermining the nation’s legislated commitment to equality and pluralism, in great tension with the Equal Protection Clause, of the 14th Amendment. He has attempted to make illegitimate the social and political strivings of generations of Americans, and has punished institutions seeking to uphold principles of equality.
1776: “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted….” This declarative principle is mirrored in Article I, U.S. Constitution; the government derives powers from consent of the governed. Government exists to serve the people, not the personal will of the Executive.
2025: President Trump has:
Declared wars without congressional consent, in direct violation of Article I, Section 8: Congress alone has power to declare war, as well as its derivative, the War Powers Resolution of 1973.
He has initiated aggressive mass roundups of immigrants and citizens alike, resulting in detention of lawful residents and amid citizens being detained in error, undermining the Fifth and 14th Amendments, the due process clause and habeas corpus protections under Article I, Section 9.
He has engaged in retaliatory defunding of academic institutions and students, undermining free speech and academic freedom, using an inherently misleading definition of “anti-Semitism” as a tool to suppress lawful speech on college campuses, punishing dissent, in an open assault on the First Amendment.
1776: “He has refused his Assent to Laws…”
2025: This president has engaged in unilateral military actions, bypassing Congress, disregarding constitutional and legislative checks on executive authority.
1776: “He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States…”
2025: The president has sanctioned indiscriminate roundups by masked agents, kidnappings, detentions and deportations violating due process, equal protection and established immigration law.
1776: “He has obstructed the Administration of Justice…”
2025: The president’s attacks on the federal judiciary have represent transparent political interference in the deliberations of the judiciary, a separate but equal branch of government, established by Article III of the Constitution
1776: “He has erected a multitude of New Offices…”
2025: The president’s appointment of central administrative vigilantes, known as the Department of Government Efficiency, (DOGE) destructive of the Appointments Clause and the Civil Service Act. Illegally and indiscriminately removed thousands of apolitical civil servants from their jobs.
1776: “He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies…”
2025: The president deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles, without a request from the state, in violation of the 10th Amendment and contrary to the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C. §1385), which forbids the use of federal troops for domestic law enforcement.
1776: “He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power…”
2025: Through ordering the use of the military for civilian enforcement, the president has eroded the separation between the military and civil authority.
1776: “He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution…”
2025: Through his unilateral action which has drawn the United States into foreign policy entanglements, the president skirted the Foreign Assistance Act by committing U.S. resources absent explicit congressional authorization and negated customary international law and jeopardized the safety and security of our nation.
1776: “For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world…”
2025: Through the imposition of trade sanctions without congressional input, the president has violated the Commerce Clause (Article I, Section 8) of the U.S. Constitution.
1776: “For depriving us … of the benefits of Trial by Jury.”
2025: The president has been instrumental in the denial of due process in immigration proceedings, including denying access to counsel and meaningful review.
1776: “For transporting us beyond Seas…”
2025: He has ordered deportation, willy nilly, and expedited removals to foreign jurisdictions, which denies access to judicial review, violating international law obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Article 13.
1776: “For suspending our own Legislatures…”
2025: Through aggressive executive action and regulatory fiat in congressional jurisdiction, the president has diminished the practical role of Congress.
1776: “He has excited domestic insurrections…”
2025: He has used military force to suppress protest movements, labeling them insurrectionist, in conflict with 1st and 10th Amendment constitutional protections.
The Ideals of the American Revolution
A presidency, whose actions unfortunately so neatly align with the historical definitions of tyranny, as articulated in the Declaration of Independence, cannot be reconciled or trusted with the sacred values of constitutional governance.
We therefore reaffirm our allegiance not to a person, not to an office, but to the Constitution of the United States of America and to the principles of 1776. Once again, here in 2025, let us “mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortune, our sacred honor,” as did those patriots of so many years ago.
The ideals of the American Revolution, stated boldly in the Declaration of Independence, ordained in the Preamble, established in the Constitution, and firmly emphasized in the Bill of Rights, require the rights of the people are paramount, and that governmental power be held in check.
Laws must govern even the governors, lest law, bent by fear, ambition and partisan loyalty becomes a sword of repression.
If America is to remain what the Revolution envisioned in 1776, a nation governed by laws, then we the people must speak out, we must act and defend that vision.
Our freedom ultimately depends upon an enlightened, active citizenry. Otherwise we betray the past and surrender the future, and the nation fails.
Source: Consortium News.
