{"id":2744,"date":"2026-07-04T10:36:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T10:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/charlotterelocationguide.com\/?p=2744"},"modified":"2026-07-04T10:36:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T10:36:31","slug":"were-celebrating-july-4-with-a-president-who-doesnt-believe-in-its-meaning-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/charlotterelocationguide.com\/?p=2744","title":{"rendered":"We\u2019re celebrating July 4 with a president who doesn\u2019t believe in its meaning | Opinion"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, we celebrate the 250th birthday of the Declaration of Independence. It indicates, famously, that: \u201cWe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal (and) endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.\u201d Four score and seven years later, at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln pressed the claim \u2013 asserting our nation was \u201cconceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.\u201d The \u201cgreat civil war [tests] whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Guests at Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift rehearsal got gift with KC tie, couple\u2019s logo<\/a><\/p>\n

Lincoln sought, explicitly, to \u201cre-adopt the Declaration of Independence and the principles which harmonize with it \u2013 the definitions and axioms of a free society.\u201d The Union fought for \u201csomething back of the Constitution entwining itself more closely about the human heart, the principle \u201cLiberty to all.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Declaration\u2019s drafters, Lincoln said, \u201cdid not mean to state the obvious untruth that all were actually enjoying that equality, or that they were about to immediately confer it upon them.\u201d They meant \u201cto declare the right so that enforcement might follow as circumstances permit\u201d. They aimed to set the \u201cthe standard for a free society, familiar to all, revered by all, labored for, and even though never perfectly attained, constantly spreading and deepening its influence.\u201d<\/p>\n

That notion, that conception, that \u201cdedication\u201d is what we celebrate on the 4th. It is why political theorist Carl Friedrich would write in 1935: \u201cTo be an American is an ideal, to be a Frenchman is a fact.\u201d The most generous reading of our unfinished national story is that of the too slow, too grudging, too tragic, too bloodied expansion of the promise of the Declaration to broader and broader segments of the American people \u2014 extending \u201cliberty to all\u201d through the mechanism of pluralistic, constitutional democracy.<\/p>\n

The irony, of course, is that we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our defining national mission with a president, Donald J. Trump, who doesn\u2019t believe in it, who seeks, instead, to demolish it. I suppose we should not be surprised when he tries to convert the holiday into a celebration of himself. What else would it be? Constitutional democracy, to understate, is not his thing.<\/p>\n

And, of course, he is not alone. A Republican House of Representatives, Senate, Supreme Court, national party and in North Carolina, state legislature join him in the effort. Violent insurrection, illegal wars, constitutional transgression, demolition of the rule of law, restrictions on the right to vote and representation, bold moves of discrimination and unseen levels of corruption and despotism pepper their crusade. It is hard for many (including me) to believe that a major, even dominant, American political party would \u2013 contrary to the aspirations and sacrifices of our forebears \u2013 turn against the Declaration\u2019s founding premise.<\/p>\n

Read more Donald Trump is the president America needs for its 250th birthday | Opinion<\/a><\/p>\n

Less attention, perhaps, has been paid to a subsequent question. If a political movement no longer aspires to equal justice under law, and, in Lincoln\u2019s phrasing, to \u201cliberty for all\u201d, what is to become our defining national mission? If the \u201call\u201d enlisted on July 4 is no longer thought to mean \u201call,\u201d who does it include?<\/p>\n

The Trump crowd has seemed eager to say, in effect, all except immigrants \u2013 against folks assertedly \u201cbringing drugs, bringing crime, rapists\u201d those \u201cpoisoning the blood of the country.\u201d Does anyone sensibly believe they\u2019ll stop there? Does \u201call\u201d mean all except Black, except Latino, except transgender, except non-Christian, except poor, except, perhaps, Democrats? If majority rule is no longer to prevail, what will rise in its stead? Can that, as yet, be explained? Or is it, like Voldemort, not to be mentioned? Can we know now, on this July 4, who among us will count, or must that also be a surprise?<\/p>\n

Contributing columnist Gene Nichol is a professor of law at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.<\/i><\/p>\n

This story was originally published July 4, 2026 at 5:00 AM<\/span> with the headline “We\u2019re celebrating July 4 with a president who doesn\u2019t believe in its meaning | Opinion.” <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Donald Trump is the president America needs for its 250th birthday | Opinion<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gene Nichol: I suppose we should not be surprised when he tries to convert the holiday into a celebration of himself. 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