Collin Willis

Today America will celebrate its 250th birthday. It’s an incredible thing for a nation to exist, let alone to thrive for two and a half centuries. We are one of the newest powers on Earth, but we’ve enjoyed status as one of its strongest since well before the last century and a half. The 4th of July is always a special time of year, a moment to hold the Declaration of Independence in our hearts like we hold the Baby Jesus at Christmas time. Yet just as the Nativity scene is oft overshadowed by bows and wrapping paper, so too is “the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them” overshadowed by fireworks and American Flag T-shirts made in China. I wanted to take some time to muse on who we are as a nation, who we have been, and who we will eternally strive to be.

A Nation of Ideals

The Founding Fathers did not always live up to their lofty ideals, but they still had them. Slavery is a dark despicable stain on this nation that has marred and continues to mark the darkest beliefs within this republic. Because of how poorly that sin has been restituted, there is a temptation to hurl the baby out with the bathwater and ignore the loftiness and virtue of the American idea. Slavery undoubtedly happened in its cruelest and most vile strains, and Civil Rights are still at stake in legislation and the courts, but the best vehicle for their removal is the nation that can’t seem to shed them.

Frederick Douglass saw the Constitution for what it was, the purest form of government that mankind has been able to conceive. Not a document immune from corruption and hatred, but intrinsically endowed with the ability to fight the disease without killing the body. The Constitution isn’t the same chemotherapy that Civil War or regime change is, a means of killing the body to kill the disease; but an anti-body designed to target and destroy that which infiltrates and harms the host. I bring up Douglass because he was a contrarian voice among white abolitionists who wanted to toss bathwater and baby alike, a leader capable of understanding that the shovel that dug the hole can not only be used to measure it but to patch it up too.

Imitated Ideals

The Constitution’s greatest advantage was that it was the second draft of these United States. When I was a kid I used to joke that my older brother, who spent a lot of time grounded for poor grades, had made all the mistakes so I could learn from them instead of making my own. The Articles of Confederation were the older brother’s mistakes for the fledgling nation in need of a new basis of government. The Constitution was imbued with the knowledge that mistakes would be made and compromise, even on matters of morality, would be required in order to forge and sustain the floundering Union.

Throughout its history, the Constitution has been used to classify a person as 3/5 of a whole, to condemn persons as property, to legalize internment, to justify injustice, and all manner of dark deeds. The branches of government grow long and their twigs and leaves often turn to gnarled brambles in need of a definitive snipping. Yet the tree remains, because the constructors of the Constitution were wise enough to undermine their own time at the table.

Just as the Virginia Plan met the New Jersey Plan to create a bicameral legislature, the same Constitution that created the 3/5 compromise created the court that would one day overturn it. The same legislature that voted in Fugitive slave acts would also ratify the Civil War amendments. The branches were designed to withstand the times when they would need to clip themselves.

The Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution are the template for even their biggest critics. They set the tone and prove the power that inspires the Declaration of the Rights of Women or John Brown’s Provisional Constitution and those imitators shape the world in such a way that they influence the grand document that inspired them.

Transient Causes

The flexibility of the Constitution is what preserves it, but the inflexibility of the ideals beneath America’s founding documents is what gives them meaning. Leaping back into the Declaration of Independence, even a decade before quill first touched parchment on the Constitution, the need for rigorous ideals was already understood by the Continental Congress.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. 

I think we have lost the guiding principles beneath these documents, even if we have retained the documents themselves. We live in a world where buzzwords like DEI and Trans Athletes can single-handedly move an election. It’s a world where birthright will be traded for a bowl of soup because we can’t see further than our immediate hunger. We’re willing to let the world’s first trillionaire gut the entirety of our global aid and domestic research, ideas also conceived in the Constitution, because we’re afraid of any waste. We’re willing to destabilize global diplomatic relations because of a culture war manufactured by our largest news station. We’ve abandoned the roots of the tree for the leaves upon the wind.

Naturalization

There are many issues I could go further into, but the most concerning to me this past week have been two of the many Supreme Court rulings to hit the public. The President of the United States and his allies have made it abundantly clear that citizenship was a primary target of their resurgent administration. This week the Supreme Court narrowly spared the 14th Amendment from a partisan culling. Immigration is the backbone of American expansion and world power. Whether it’s English, Irish, Italian, Chinese, or Mexican; this country has always thrived because of the opportunity and access it has promised to those coming in. America hasn’t expanded by appealing to the elite capable of dropping $1,000,000 on a gold card; but by welcoming the poor, the tired, the huddled masses.

Like any other topic, American ideals have often conflicted with American action. From the XYZ amendments to Internment camps, welcoming immigrants hasn’t always rung true with the words on paper. Yet the frustration with naturalization was one shared by the colonies against King George III:

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

The Fourteenth Amendment was the guarantor of that Declaration ideal, a cleaver that swung deep between Citizen and would-be. It was a sign that once again the document that compromised itself over slavery, was also embedded with the power to dismantle it. It meant that being American wasn’t something that required political power or wealth, but that was as inalienable to those who were born here as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The Fight for 14

The fight against naturalization as guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, and therefore the Constitution, is a relatively surprising one. It is rare to undo a Constitutional amendment, and short of this administration any contemporary attempts to dismantle it have been taken as little more than fringe conspiracy. This wasn’t an open target of the first Trump administration even, but I believe I know why it became enemy #1 under the second.

The 14th Amendment was created in response to secession and the Civil War. Embedded in its wording is a prohibition for Confederates (intentionally written as those that “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”) Donald Trump has continued to engage in and give comfort to the enemies thereof within his lie over the 2020 election. The 14th Amendment was leveled against him in the brief moment where he seemed vulnerable from the right and left, and more than he uses xenophobia as a tool I think he hates it because it was the one thing that wounded him. It represents the one time in his reign that even his most ardent supporters were willing to do what was right instead of what was popular. It’s the Harry Potter to his Voldemort, the heir of Elendil to his Sauron; an enemy that need be vanquished because it has proven its ability to humiliate him.

Congress

The truth is that the power to vanquish the corrupt and the cruel is readily accessible, but Trump’s rise to power within our nation parallels with a congress that has grown fat on its own excesses. To keep this back in the realm of fantasy for a second, the Representatives and Senators think too highly of their own ability to resist the One Ring and simultaneously see themselves as being the only ones capable of wielding it.

On one side of the aisle we have Democrats that have been in government since before a single Kennedy had been assassinated. There are members of Congress who have been there since before Star Wars was created. There is an immature belief in our most geriatric representatives that they need to hold on to power because someone lesser might take it after them. They grow fat and lazy, accustomed to the stink of their own excess and the issues that have long since affected them. The beauty of the Washingtonian example is that power was peacefully handed over, abandoned when it could have been turned into a dynasty. John Adams understood the importance of yielding power to your enemy, peacefully stepping down after his loss to Thomas Jefferson. Yet Congress considers itself immune to the wiles of power and remains complacent in a never ending cycle of chasing voters rather than leading them. Congressional Democrats would rather die in their seats than hand it over to someone else.

Congressional Republicans aren’t immune either, and if the Trump administrations have proven anything it’s that these dedicated public servants will spew any message, sell any lie, and shred any virtue if they think it will make them appeal more to the primary voters in their next election. They stave off doing the right thing because if they do it now it might jeopardize their chances of doing it in the future. It’s why they suddenly find their courage to speak against Trump after they enter their lame duck periods, because there becomes no right thing left to do and the unwavering support no longer sustains their livelihoods. To quote Harriet Beecher Stowe, “now is the only time there ever is to do a thing in.”, and whatever moral members of the Republican Party remain have continually sacrificed doing something now for the sake of maybe doing something in the future.

SCOTUS

I am no fan of Ronald Reagan, but I do think his appointment of Sandra Day O’Connor to the Supreme Court was one of the most brilliant political moves. Reagan, who represented a very anti-feminist wing of Conservatism, nominated the first female Supreme Court Justice. Her political opinions didn’t matter because to stand against her nomination was to vote against the first female Supreme Court Justice, and so she cleared the senate with unanimous approval. It was a beautiful way to force the hand of Democrats by weighing partisanship against the optics of the situation. For her part, Sandra Day O’Connor was a team player. She stepped down during George W. Bush’s administration and was replaced by another Conservative nominee.

Compare that with the Notorious RBG. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was everything of a feminist, a critical voice in striking down discrimination on the basis of sex. She was also another in a long line of Democrats who refused to step down when their time came and died in office, handing what could have been a Biden appointment to a hypocritical Trump appointment in Amy Coney Barrett. Republicans threw a tantrum when Obama tried to appoint Merrick Garland in 2016, but completely abandoned their qualms when it was time for Trump’s lame duck appointment following Ginsburg’s death.

That lame duck appointment just helped remove the barriers between infinite money and political campaigns. You cannot separate MAGA from the entrenched Democrats. Neither can exist if the other hadn’t readied the world for them.

Democratic Demolition

The Democratic Party is in chaos, and there seem to be a million different answers to where the party goes. The Baby Boomers in Congress and on the Supreme Court still cannot fathom their own hand being on the great wheel of chaos. Democratic leadership will probably continue to grip their seats in Congress until even their skeletons have turned to dust, and the rest of the party runs in a million different directions trying to figure out where to go next.

The popular answer seems to be creating an Anti-Trump, a Blue MAGA that rides the populist wave rather than attempting to tame it. Gavin Newsom seems to be the front runner on that end, and the country will be all the worse for it if Blue MAGA is the Democrat solution. It’s like the people of Far, Far, Away running from one broken Starbucks into the other one across the street. Nothing has changed, it’s the same brand of coffee served to the same audience, it’s just fifteen feet in a different direction.

If the party really wants to embrace populism, it needs to embrace the working class like Zohran Mamdani did in New York City. Regardless of your views on politics or religion, it is a marvel to watch a politician say they’re going to do something and actually do it. In less than six moths he balanced a horrendous deficit from a corrupt (entrenched) Democratic mayor without cutting services. The future of the party can be seen here, not because of political policy, but because it’s a guy willing to get down and do the work. If the Democrats want to survive they need to start by smashing down the ivory towers of leaders like Pelosi and Schumer and getting their hands in the salt of the earth like Mamdani.

Infinite Finance Glitch

Big Money backs Republican politicians. The amount of money the Koch brothers alone have poured into far-right PACs and think tanks could make the treasury of King Solomon look bare. The Supreme Court just made it legal to pour as much as big money wants into any singular campaign. As we saw with Elon Musk’s $250million+ contribution to Trump 2024, money buys a lot. The world’s richest man was rewarded for his financial input with unfettered access to all of the Government’s data, every program and resource, and all of your personal information. It’s no coincidence that he became a trillionaire after accessing it. Gutting the world’s AIDS prevention, food programs, and missionary funding was just a treat on top of it.

With the legal shackles stricken down, the pathways from finance to direct influence and intervention are wide open. The current administration has already seen enough corruption to put the Grant Cabinet and Nixon Administration to shame, and the Supreme Court just invited anyone without a hand in the cookie jar to come on in. I wrote during Trump’s previous term that the world wasn’t worse just because of what he was doing directly, but because of how he primed the world for chaos even after he left office. We’re witnessing those consequences in real time.

Great Again

Petty beef and personal gain are the mantra of this administration. All it took were a few trans athletes to scare voters and now Trump has not only enriched his own personal fortune by $2 billion, but he has permanently estranged our closest global relations through tariffs and threats of war. He’s destabilized the Middle East and the Middle Class though his unsanctioned warfare in Iran. He’s also struck a deal to exempt himself and his family from taxes in perpetuity. He’s accepted bribes from the funders of Al Qaeda, and he’s ear marked $1billion+ in slush funding for his fellow conspirators on January 6th. All this while continuing to spread lies about our election integrity and push for voter restrictions and disenfranchisement via his SAVE act. But hey, America is 250 years old so let’s celebrate.

Let’s celebrate the hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on renovating the White House, on preparing the lawn for a UFC fight. Or what about the $14million and climbing being spent on painting the reflecting pool. Let’s grab our Trump Passports and our Trump phones and pretend like any of this is normal.

Let’s vote for a guy who ran on a pro-choice platform and pretend we’re saving the babies. Let’s vote for the guy who holds the blood of fourteen million children and climbing because they no longer have access to food, water, or medicine and pretend we’re pro-family. Let’s vote for the guy who denied asylum status for Christian refugees from non-white countries and pretend we’re pro-Christian.

Gap Men

It is extremely easy to become disheartened by this country. As our 250th dawns on me, I cannot say I’m very excited about celebrating. It fills me with sorrow to see so many people who know better choose worse. It hurts to see the ideals of the American Declaration, of the Constitution, and of the American Dream be given away so easily. Yet I take heart because there are still men and women fighting for those things amidst the chaos. They exist on either side of the aisle. Whether it’s Adam Kinzinger or Zohran Mamdani, David French or Ezra Klein, Scott Pelley or Stephen Colbert. There are still people willing to stand in the gap and call a spade a spade.

In the darkness of this moment is the greatest reminder that this is a nation worth fighting for. This is a place worth believing in, a set of ideals worth the conflict, and even the loss. It is a nation whose dawn is always bright, regardless of the darkness of its dusk. It is a nation often blinded by the spangliness of its own starred banner, but one that is equipped beyond its means. There will never be a perfect nation on Earth, but I do believe that there are few driven to that ideal quite like this one. Lets not forget that We the people is followed by in order to form a more perfect union.

Some day Donald Trump will die and MAGA with him. The damage he has done to our nation and the world will not be fixed overnight, but it is my firm belief in the American people that gives me the comfort to know that problems we created can be solved when we’re willing to overcome our own compromises. When we sit at the table and choose to undermine our own eternal authority, when we choose to sink our hands into the ground and clutch the weeds by the root, those are the moments when those ideals come to life. Those are the moments when this nation lives up to its ideals and when our Republic becomes the beacon on a hill we have always dreamed it to be. Those ideals are the 250 we celebrate, and that is why even this nation at its most broken and bitterest is worth celebrating.