The Fourth of July offers a grand teachable moment for educators, especially progressive ones. As an assignment for my summer sociology classes, I would typically have students read Frederick Douglas’ “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”; listen to Paul Robeson sing “Ballad for Americans”; and ask them to identify what a citizen’s duty is as explicitly mentioned in the Declaration of Independence. This assignment would likely get me reprimanded, if not fired, today. Yet the liberating truth revealed in these works is more vital today than ever.

Just about everyone is familiar with its opening statement about the self-evident truths that all men are created equal, that they are endowed … with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. But far too few pay attention to, let alone act upon, what follows: that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and institute new Government… Yet the 56 signers this revolutionary Declaration did not stop there, but amplified the urgency to confront tyranny by making it a call to duty:

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

The Spirit of ’76 animating these sentiments is echoed today in massive anti-Trump protests. Millions have taken to the streets to declare in the Spirit, and almost the very words, of our nation’s founders that the history of the present President of the United States is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having a direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted:

1. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice. In defiance of judicial orders to halt illegal deportations, he sent hundreds of immigrants to concentration camps abroad, and threatens to deport thousands more without due process.
2. He has made judges dependent on his will. He fired scores of noncompliant immigration judges and imposed his will on others.
3. He has erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people. He established DOGE to massively purge vital agencies of their staff.
4. He has kept among us…Standing Armies without the consent of our legislators. Without the approval of local officials, he sent hundreds of US Marines and thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles in response to protests.
5. He has effected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power. He bombed Iran without authorization by Congress and in violation of international law.
6. He has gutted the nation’s safety net and cultural life by slashing funding for SNAP and Medicaid; abolishing the Department of Education; dismantling NEH; decimating the workforce at countless federal agencies; and drastically cutting support for vital services across the entire federal spectrum, save the bloated military budget that he increased to $1 trillion for the next fiscal year, which, when combined with the disastrous effects of his One Big Beautiful Bill, will inflate the national debt by over $3 trillion through 2034.

The verdict against President Trump, like that against King George, is incontrovertible:

A Prince or President, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Amen.