Joey Chestnut, the world-famous hot dog eating champion, returns to the Nathan&#8217;s Famous Hot Dog Eating Competition after taking a year off — and is expected to dominate once again.
Chestnut, who was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hot-dog-legend-joey-chestnut-signs-with-vegan-brand-gets-booted-from-july-4th-competition" target="_blank" rel="noopener">booted</a> from last year&#8217;s July 4 competition after taking a deal with fake meat company Impossible Foods, announced his return last month.
&#8220;I&#8217;m thrilled to be returning to the Nathan&#8217;s Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest,&#8221; Chestnut <a href="https://x.com/joeyjaws/status/1934612017052336469" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. &#8220;This event means the world to me. It&#8217;s a cherished tradition, a celebration of American culture, and a huge part of my life.&#8221;
Although Chestnut did not compete in Nathan&#8217;s 2024 competition, he still holds 55 world records for various eating competitions. According to <a href="https://majorleagueeating.com/eaters/106" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Major League Eating,</a> the moderating body behind the hot dog eating contest, Chestnut also holds records for eating 121 Twinkies in six minutes, 390 shrimp wontons in eight minutes, and, of course, 76 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
Chestnut has earned the &#8220;Mustard Belt&#8221; 16 times since 2008, the most anyone has ever won. He holds a strong lead over the competitor with the next highest number of wins, Takeru Kobayashi, who earned six belts before retiring due to health concerns.
Major League Eating <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hot-dog-legend-joey-chestnut-signs-with-vegan-brand-gets-booted-from-july-4th-competition" target="_blank" rel="noopener">banned</a> Chestnut from the Nathan&#8217;s Famous competition last year after he signed a deal with Impossible Foods, a Nathan&#8217;s competitor.
In a <a href="https://x.com/eatingcontest/status/1800607390636875792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1800607390636875792%7Ctwgr%5Ec0d98868a70172f80ffb323be440b5ea4f586a0d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailywire.com%2Fnews%2Fhot-dog-legend-joey-chestnut-signs-with-vegan-brand-gets-booted-from-july-4th-competition" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> last year on X, the group said, &#8220;We are devastated to learn that Joey Chestnut has chosen to represent a rival brand that sells plant-based hot dogs rather than competing in the 2024 Nathan&#8217;s Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest.&#8221;
During his hiatus from Nathan&#8217;s Famous competition, Chestnut set the <a href="https://x.com/joeyjaws/status/1916645992176173327" target="_blank" rel="noopener">record</a> for the most Buffalo Wild Wings eaten in one sitting, consuming 14.4 pounds of wings.
Patrick Bertoletti, who won last year&#8217;s competition with 58 hot dogs, has expressed his concern over Chestnut&#8217;s return. In an <a href="https://www.sportsbookreview.com/picks/more-sports/patrick-bertoletti-interview-nathans-hot-dog-eating-contest-2025/?utm_content=336287137&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;hss_channel=tw-174346152" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> with Sportsbook Review, Bertoletti said, “I want to do better so that I can silence [Chestnut].&#8221;
&#8220;My goal the whole time was to do better than last year, and that&#8217;s always been the case,&#8221; Bertoletti said. &#8220;If Joey&#8217;s not there, then I have a very good shot of winning if I do that. And now that Joey is going, it&#8217;s the same thing.&#8221;
Major League Eating celebrated his return to the Nathan&#8217;s Famous competition by <a href="https://x.com/eatingcontest/status/1940470661396259297" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saying</a>, &#8220;He&#8217;s back. The legend. The GOAT. Joey Chestnut. Watch him dominate once again at the Nathan&#8217;s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. You don&#8217;t want to miss this.&#8221;
The winner of today&#8217;s competition will take home $10,000. The runner-up will receive $5,000, and third place wins $2,500.
Online prediction market Polymarket already has a few bets on the competition live. Fans have given Chestnut about a 90% chance of <a href="https://polymarket.com/event/nathans-hot-dog-eating-contest-winner/will-joey-chestnut-win-the-2025-nathans-hot-dog-eating-contest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">winning</a>. They are also more divided on how many hot dogs Chestnut will eat, with most <a href="https://polymarket.com/event/will-the-76-hot-dog-record-be-broken-on-july-4-172" target="_blank" rel="noopener">doubting</a> he will beat his own record.

Joey Chestnut Visits “The Claman Countdown”

Joey Chestnut Returns To Coney Island, Expected To Dominate Hot Dog Eating Contest

America

Declaration of Independence

Fourth of July

meat

Let’s be real: most of us aren’t crossing the Delaware this 4th of July. We’re crossing the backyard in flip-flops to open the cooler. And that’s fine. That’s American, even. But while we’re manning the grill and dodging bottle rockets, we’d do well to remember: this day isn’t just about fireworks and flag-themed cupcakes. It’s about something far rarer — and far more worth preserving.
Because America didn’t just happen. It was made — and paid for.
Two hundred and forty-nine years ago, a bunch of men in powdered wigs looked at the most powerful empire on Earth and said, “Nah—we’re going to try something different. Hold my beer.” They didn’t tweet about tyranny. They fought it. They signed their names on a document that would’ve earned them a hangman’s rope had things gone south. And then they backed it up — starving, freezing, bleeding, and winning, so that one day you and I could argue over gas prices and post pics on Instagram.
They weren’t fighting for tax credits or better trade deals. They were fighting for the radical belief that our rights come from God, not government. And they risked everything for it.
We, by comparison, are just risking the brisket.
But maybe that’s the point. You don’t have to be Washington at Valley Forge to honor the Spirit of ’76. You just have to be intentional. You just have to remember.
Because the truth is, most Americans today couldn’t name five Founders. Some think the Revolutionary War was a Marvel spinoff. And every summer, like clockwork, the usual suspects try to reduce the Founding to a footnote in oppression — something to apologize for, not admire.
But the American Founding wasn’t a mistake. It was a miracle. Were the Founders flawed men? Sure. We all are. But the system they built — this Constitutional Republic grounded in natural rights and self-government — is still the greatest experiment in liberty the world has ever seen.
And it’s worth celebrating.
So, this Independence Day, take a minute — take five — to appreciate not just the fireworks, but the fire that lit the Revolution.
Maybe take some time to think about Jack Jouett. You’ve probably never heard his name. But when British troops were closing in on Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia Legislature, Jouett rode through the night, 40 miles on rough terrain, branches slashing his face, to warn them.
He didn’t do it for fame. He didn’t expect a reward. He was just a regular guy who refused to let tyranny win on his watch.
So too were the legions of cold, hungry, bleeding men in Washington’s army who crossed the icy Delaware River on Christmas night, 1776. They marched barefoot through the snow to launch a surprise attack on a Hessian outpost in Trenton. Some died before the battle even began. But the rest fought, and they won. And with that win, the Revolution roared back to life.
These weren’t abstract ideals on parchment. These were men, enduring literal hell so that future generations could taste Heaven’s gift: liberty.
And that gift has only survived this long because, in every generation, regular people stepped up to keep it alive.
That includes you.
John Adams said, “Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.”
So, if you want to make good use of it, here’s your checklist for a meaningful 4th of July:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Read the Declaration of Independence with your kids. Yes, even if they roll their eyes. Especially if they roll their eyes.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Fly the flag. Not because it looks good on your porch, but because you know what it cost.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Ask your kids what freedom means to them. Not a lecture — a conversation. They’re starving for meaning. Feed them something real.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Turn off TikTok. Read a chapter of the Federalist Papers. Or watch The Patriot instead of a reality show about people with fake names and real dysfunction.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Say grace. And thank God you live in a country where you can.</li>
</ul>
And if you’re Gen Z, no one expects you to recite the Constitution from memory. But maybe — just maybe — start asking questions. Read a book. Volunteer. Serve your neighbor. Build something with your hands. Log some service hours instead of screentime.
Because guess what? Next year is America’s 250th birthday. That’s not just a milestone. It’s a moment. A year from now, when the fireworks explode and the flags wave, don’t be the one just snapping selfies. Be the one who knows why it matters. Let this year be your warm-up lap. Spend the next 12 months loading the intellectual cannons. Read the Founding documents. Relearn the history. Equip yourself with truth.
Because if America is going to survive another 250 years, it won’t be because we got more “progressive.” It won’t be because of people like Barack Obama, who infamously said “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.”
No, if America is to survive, it will be thanks to people who fought to conserve who we are: a nation under God. A people forged in sacrifice. A Republic—if we can keep it.
You can’t defend a country you refuse to define. And you certainly can’t celebrate one you won’t even elevate.
So, fire up the Weber. Salute the flag. Tell your kids the truth. Thank the ones who served. And say a prayer for the country that lets you do all five without asking permission.
We don’t need more guilt. We need more gratitude.
We don’t need perfect people. We need present patriots.
And we don’t need another political lecture. We need more parents, more truth, more God, more America.
Now, hold my beer. The brisket is burning.
Gates Garcia is the host of the YouTube show and podcast We The People. Follow him on IG and X @GatesGarciaFL
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Friends celebrating Forth of July

The Everyday American’s Guide To The Fourth Of July

Founding Fathers

Freedom

Gen Z

Patriotism

Revolutionary War

The Fourth of July must be very hard for the British.
I mean, imagine fumbling a sizable chunk of your empire, watching it grow into the greatest country in the world, and then having them celebrate the breakup every year with pyrotechnics? Not even 250 years is long enough to get over that.
So, I don’t begrudge our pals across the pond for finding ways to cope when Independence Day rolls around. Like the good chaps over at JL Partners, who commissioned a poll that found that one in five Americans want to replace the president with the British monarch. Or their fellow expatriate, POLITICO’s Jack Blanchard, who <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2025/07/03/congress-caves-again-00438202?nname=playbook&amp;nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&amp;nrid=00000155-9c90-dad1-ad7d-fed474bb0000" target="_blank" rel="noopener">printed the poll results</a> in this morning’s Playbook.
“You heard me right,” Blanchard writes. “Polling and strategy firm JL Partners asked 1,000 U.S. voters if they support or oppose replacing the current president of the United States with the British monarch. The survey found 19% of Americans supported the idea.”
This support was “even higher among certain groups,” JL Partners’ James Johnson told POLITICO, noting that “more than one in three 18-29-year-olds back the idea.”
Does Gen Z really yearn for a return to the monarchy? Well, not exactly.
<a class="c-link" href="https://get.dailywire.com/freedom/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial&amp;utm_campaign=freedom&amp;utm_content=freedomeditorial" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://get.dailywire.com/freedom/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial&amp;utm_campaign=freedom&amp;utm_content=freedomeditorial" data-sk="tooltip_parent">JULY 4 SALE: Get Six Months Of DW+ Free</a>
Johnson confirmed to The Daily Wire that JL Partners collected information through an online, opt-in poll. According to the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/03/05/online-opt-in-polls-can-produce-misleading-results-especially-for-young-people-and-hispanic-adults/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pew Research Center</a>, these polls “can produce misleading results, especially for young people.”
The issue, it seems, is that young people who opt into these polls and click through quickly, “with as little effort as possible to earn money or other rewards.” The result? “Studies have shown that bogus respondents can cause opt-in surveys to overestimate rare attitudes and behaviors.”
Pew tested this theory by asking online opt-in respondents if they were licensed to operate a nuclear submarine. Twelve percent said yes. The actual proportion of Americans licensed to do? Less than 1%.
In other words, you can pretty much get 18-29-year-olds to say yes to anything, if you ask. This is why there’s still a market for Chappell Roan singles, or nonalcoholic beers.
And Gen Z isn’t perfect. Just <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/692150/american-pride-slips-new-low.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">41% of them say</a> they’re “extremely or very proud to be Americans,” according to Gallup.
But that doesn’t mean young Americans want King Charles to swoop in and hand them a cup of tea. In fact, Gen Z is moving <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/414266/republican-conservative-two-gen-z-young-voter-trumpier-progressive." target="_blank" rel="noopener">more and more to the Right</a>. And why wouldn’t they? We’re entering a new American golden age.
The economy is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-effect-u-s-adds-147k-jobs-beating-projections-for-fourth-straight-month?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Catherine+Maxwell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=TRUMP+EFFECT%3A+U.S.+Adds+147K+Jobs%2C+Beating+Projections+For+Fourth+Straight+Month" target="_blank" rel="noopener">booming</a>. Iran’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pilots-who-bombed-iran-will-come-to-white-house-on-fourth-of-july?author=Mary+Margaret+Olohan&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Pilots+Who+Bombed+Iran+Will+Come+To+White+House+On+Fourth+Of+July" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on the ropes</a>. The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-met-the-pope-it-was-amazing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pope</a> is from Chicago. Joey Chestnut’s back at Coney Island.
And what’s happening in England? Rappers are <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/state-dept-revokes-bob-vylans-visa-as-agency-drops-him-and-u-s-tour-is-canceled" target="_blank" rel="noopener">calling for jihad</a>, and people are <a href="https://x.com/ByDobson/status/1936014831003615621" target="_blank" rel="noopener">losing their minds</a> about the 78-degree heat. Yeah, no thanks.
At the end of the day, you can never trust the polls. They said <a href="https://x.com/ByDobson/status/1936014831003615621" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump would lose</a> in November, and look how that turned out. But we don’t need statistics to know how Americans feel about monarchy. As Americans, we know deep down that we would never, could never have a king. That ship sailed long ago — long before we even declared independence in the first place.
As John Adams <a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-6854" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> to Hezekiah Niles in 1818: “What do We mean by the American Revolution? Do We mean the American War? The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the Minds and Hearts of the People.”
That Revolution lives on in the hearts and minds of today’s Americans. And, whether they know it or not, it lives on in the hearts and minds of today’s Brits, too.
In <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Freddy-Fredericka-Mark-Helprin/dp/0143037250" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Freddy and Fredericka</a>, Mark Helprin, one of America’s greatest living novelists, imagines a modern-day Prince of Wales who must reclaim “the colonies” before he’s crowned king. As he crosses the United States to complete his mission, Freddy grows to love and understand the country he’s meant to reconquer, eventually coming to this conclusion:
<blockquote>“America does not need and cannot have a king, for it is majestic in itself as perhaps no country has ever been. And its great majesty is not the splendid landscape or the long and sunny coasts, not the Mississippi or the snows of the Pacific Crest. Its greatest majesty, its gift to the world, is that it has carried out God’s will to make each man a king, subservient only to Him. From the beginning, this has been the underlying force of every footfall, smile, and blink of an eye in this country.”</blockquote>
So, the monarchists can poll all they want, and journalists can print the results. It doesn’t matter to us — we’re too busy not having a king.

Independance day

Dear England: We Still Don’t Want Your King

England

United Kingdom

250 years ago today, future president John Adams declared this was “one of the happiest Days of” his life. As he <a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/01-02-02-0004-0006" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recorded in his journal:</a>
<blockquote>&#8220;This was one of the happiest Days of my Life. In Congress We had generous, noble Sentiments, and manly Eloquence. This Day convinced me that America will support the Massachusetts or perish with her.&#8221;</blockquote>
Why so happy? Because the First Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia and composed of respected Virginians like George Washington and Patrick Henry and Massachusetts natives Sam and John Adams, had endorsed the <a href="https://www.masshist.org/database/viewer.php?item_id=696&amp;img_step=1&amp;pid=2&amp;mode=transcript#page1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Suffolk Resolves</a>, a series of 19 resolutions written by defiant colonists from Boston’s surrounding counties.
Why was this so monumental?
In one sense, the Suffolk Resolves were not unique. Other localities throughout the colonies issued similar statements of resistance. American colonists had long governed themselves through their own institutions, assemblies, and charters. They resented Britain’s creeping interference and were preparing, as they would in the Declaration of Independence, to present to a “candid world” the principles of a new nation. And yet the Resolves stand out as a refined version of widespread conversations that had been occurring in the colonies about political principles and was an intellectual precursor to the Declaration.
The Declaration itself encapsulates the principles most central to the American national character. It did not spring suddenly from the singular pen of Thomas Jefferson. As <a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/98-01-02-5212" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jefferson himself wrote</a>, it was “an expression of the [A]merican mind,” and its “authority rests then on the harmonising sentiments of the day.” In voting to draft, finalize, and pass the Declaration, participants in various committees and associations, like the Committee of Five and the Continental Congress, had to come to an agreement. All told, the members of the conventions, committees, Congress, and the colonies achieved a consensus in “more than fifty separate instances at a minimum” as Dr. Danielle Allen demonstrates in &#8220;Our Declaration.&#8221;
Such a consensus was possible because, prior to the Declaration’s issuance, the American people had deliberated and united around a set of moral and political maxims. They did so in and through church pews, pulpits, and pamphlets. In a 1638 sermon, Reverend Thomas Hooker, who founded the colony of Connecticut, declared that “<a href="https://connecticuthistory.org/the-free-consent-of-the-people-thomas-hooker-and-the-fundamental-orders/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the foundation of authority is laid, firstly, in the free consent of the people</a>.”
Religious institutions were gathering places for the 70-80 percent of colonists who attended service on a regular basis, according to &#8220;We Still Hold These Truths&#8221; by Dr. Matthew Spalding. Likewise, Thomas Paine’s &#8220;Common Sense,&#8221; published in the early months of 1776, sold approximately 500,000 copies when the population was just four million.
<h4><a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here!</a></h4>
Public documents were a means of disseminating and discussing the ideas America would be dedicated to upholding. The Suffolk Resolves made clear that the actions of the British were not mere violations of man-made laws. Reaching back to first principles, Americans contended that infringements on the right of representation and self-government were, “gross Infractions of those Rights to which we are justly entitled by the Laws of Nature, the British Constitution, and the Charter of the Province.” Violations by the British of the laws of nature were the ultimate grounds for separation.
Natural laws are not about the physical laws of the universe, like gravity, but the moral laws that human beings do not author and cannot themselves change. For example, murder is and has always been wrong, despite it occurring in all human societies, and it would remain immoral even if Congress passed a law to make it legal.
Human beings have inherent equal dignity, a principle that is interwoven through America’s documents leading up to the Revolution and is resoundingly affirmed in the Declaration of Independence. Nine of the early state constitutions contained expressions of human equality in some form, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Political-Theory-American-Founding-Conditions/dp/1316506037/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2H20U7BN7TC4J&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.6qtc2rDHt-eUAnvUNOWGcHoydmfDDWYvpVCEfsosvd0EIwzTqv-kOfaQ2wvE-5-nivfxK_gCKiOydGmsvehF9Axk0jevsI92E_SVXYrSLJUYNZe3XhWYq_STdhR2rS39tf6XIAg2YjNKFwciDl3hhwOw1EZz9fff6X07sToEIl3o4L-5HKnbL19VO7vzSMmJwDDkHKzseLZQyv7OS9e7us9WCCeQH8xqMxjINBMzx6g.iz2h0xgI27hDriV1LLtgh5AlgL1thYUFaB6cToR16ug&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=the+political+theory+of+the+american+founding&amp;qid=1717520575&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=the+political+theory+of+the+american+founding%2Cstripbooks%2C100&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">founding scholar Dr. Thomas West</a> notes.
The <a href="https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/virginia-declaration-of-rights" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Virginia Declaration of Rights</a>, adopted in June 1776, states that, “all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights.” And the Declaration of Independence memorialized this principle with the phrase, “all men are created equal.”
Men is a substitute for all human beings, regardless of sex or social status. As John Adams <a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-10-02-0007-0007" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote, equality</a>:
<blockquote>&#8220;It really means little more than that We are all of the same Species: made by the same God: possessed of Minds and Bodies alike in Essence… All Men are Men and not Beasts…The Equality of Nature is a moral Equality only: an Equality of Rights and Obligations; nothing more.&#8221;</blockquote>
All species have their defining characteristics. Most essential to humanity is our capacity to reason and engage in self-government, not our physical features, like skin tone or size. Through reason, we can discern right from wrong rather than act on mere instinct. And human beings are capable of controlling their impulses, passions, and desires.
Such capacities mean it is unjust for people to rule over one another absent their consent. England had repeatedly violated those principles by dismissing elected colonial assemblies, rejecting colonial laws, and imposing their own without obtaining the consent of the colonists. Thousands of miles away, Parliament believed it could uphold the common good and represent Americans as subjects. But Americans had formed themselves into a new kind of people, united around the principles of human equality and consent of the governed, and the character of that people rebelled against being relegated to an inferior status.
Sustaining that character requires ongoing work. Each generation of Americans has to decide to recommit itself to the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and it is remarkable that we have the opportunity to do so. We can choose to govern ourselves now, both as individuals and as a nation, if we maintain the principled consensus of our past.
While today marks the anniversary of the Suffolk Resolves, we are rapidly approaching an even more crucial anniversary: the 250th of the Declaration of Independence. Will we resolve on that day to continue in the work we began on July 4, 1776, or will we depart from the intellectual heritage that made possible our ongoing experiment in self-government?
* * *
Brenda Hafera is the Assistant Director and Senior Policy Analyst at The Heritage Foundation&#8217;s Simon Center for American Studies.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

john-adams-our-second-president

Why John Adams Called September 17 One Of ‘The Happiest Days’ Of His Life

Why John Adams Called September 17 One Of 'The Happiest Days' Of His Life

American Revolution

Great Britain

John Adams

Massachusetts

Opinion

Some July 4th traditions endure better than others. We’ll always have fireworks, parades, and family picnics, it seems. But there was also a time when presidents offered eloquent speeches on America’s birthday — ones aimed at fostering unity and gratitude. And who can deny we could use more of that in such fractious times?
Sure, few of us would clamor for another presidential speech. But in an age where we’re losing a sense of who we are and the significance of our heritage, it’s a tradition worth renewing, especially with our 250th anniversary on the horizon.
<a href="https://www.vindicatingthefounders.com/library/electric-cord-speech.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Both Abraham Lincoln</a> and <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-the-celebration-the-150th-anniversary-the-declaration-independence-philadelphia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Calvin Coolidge delivered</a> particularly notable July 4th speeches. In his opening, Coolidge noted that, “It is to pay our tribute of reverence and respect to those who participated in such a mighty event that we annually observe the fourth day of July.” The event, of course, was the birth of a new nation.
It’s all too easy to forget the remarkableness of the deeds done, the selflessness of the risks taken, and the magnitude of the accomplishments of our Founding Fathers. General George Washington defeated the most formidable military in the world. The Constitution was the “miracle of Philadelphia,” and remains the oldest written constitution in existence. Such undertakings were assumed for the benefit of not only those first Americans, but their posterity.
The issuance of the Declaration of Independence was still more noteworthy. As Coolidge explained, “It was not because it was proposed to establish a new nation, but because it was proposed to establish a nation on new principles, that July 4, 1776, has come to be regarded as one of the greatest days in history.” The Declaration put forth the revolutionary idea that no human being is born to rule over others absent their consent. That idea makes each American the fortunate inheritor of a unique trust: a nation committed to self-government.
<div id="attachment_759175" style="width: 748px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-759175" class="size-large wp-image-759175" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/07/GettyImages-104560161-738x576.jpg" alt="Grace Coolidge (1879-1957), First Lady of the United States, United States President Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), the wife of Coolidge's friend Frank Stearns, and C. Bascom Slemp (1870-1943), Secretary to the President, sitting in their box at the sixth game of the World Series in Washington, D.C., USA, circa 1925. Coolidge and Slemp are pictured waving their hats, cheering on their team, from the box, draped in a United States flag. (Photo by FPG/Getty Images)" width="738" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/07/GettyImages-104560161-738x576.jpg 738w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/07/GettyImages-104560161-300x234.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/07/GettyImages-104560161-768x599.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/07/GettyImages-104560161.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 738px) 100vw, 738px" />FPG/Getty Images</div>
That trust establishes a connective chain of gratitude and obligation for the American people today. The Founding generation launched the experiment. The current generation has the task of continuing it by governing themselves, assuming their duties and respecting the rights of others, in equal measure. Without an appreciation of their heritage, we can’t expect them to remain galvanized to maintain a life of freedom for their children.
Such reflections serve to inspire, just as they humble. Contemporary Americans are the posterity, but not the singular source, of America’s material blessings. From the Founding to Lincoln’s time, America had grown in size, population, and wealth. It was the “iron men” who fought for the principles of America, who enabled the “degree of prosperity that we now enjoy.” The Founders established a commercial republic, respectful of property rights and disdainful of class distinctions, that unleashed American ingenuity, entrepreneurship, and mobility.
Both Lincoln and Coolidge believed such enterprise could ultimately be traced to the Declaration of Independence. It is the principle of human equality that eliminates fixed social status and gives individuals the right to eat the bread that their own hands earn, <a href="https://mason.gmu.edu/~zschrag/hist120spring05/lincoln_ottawa.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as Lincoln explained</a>.
In turn, Coolidge contended that, “The things of the spirit come first.” He warned that, unless Americans cling to the Declaration, “all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren scepter in our grasp.” Material pursuits, when not bound by eternal and immutable principles, become destructive. Self-reliance degrades to autonomy, greed, and consumerism. Profound abundance, absent the transcendent and sacrificial, ushers in a crisis of purpose and meaning. Coolidge’s words portend our time.
Fortunately, Coolidge also provided a path forward. Examinations of the past serve to underscore the unifying work that went into the Declaration and offer hope for renewed consensus. The Declaration was not an exegesis of privileged, select statesmen but “the result of the seasoned and deliberate thought of the dominant portion of the people of the Colonies.”
For example, the principle of equality was present in nine of the early state constitutions, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Political-Theory-American-Founding-Conditions/dp/1316506037/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2H20U7BN7TC4J&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.6qtc2rDHt-eUAnvUNOWGcHoydmfDDWYvpVCEfsosvd0EIwzTqv-kOfaQ2wvE-5-nivfxK_gCKiOydGmsvehF9Axk0jevsI92E_SVXYrSLJUYNZe3XhWYq_STdhR2rS39tf6XIAg2YjNKFwciDl3hhwOw1EZz9fff6X07sToEIl3o4L-5HKnbL19VO7vzSMmJwDDkHKzseLZQyv7OS9e7us9WCCeQH8xqMxjINBMzx6g.iz2h0xgI27hDriV1LLtgh5AlgL1thYUFaB6cToR16ug&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=the+political+theory+of+the+american+founding&amp;qid=1717520575&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=the+political+theory+of+the+american+founding%2Cstripbooks%2C100&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to Founding scholar Dr. Thomas West</a>. Ideas about inherent natural rights and equality were put forth in the Virginia Declaration of Rights, penned by George Mason, prior to the Declaration of Independence. The recognition that “all men are created equal” was made accessible by the Judeo-Christian tenet that all are equal in the eyes of God. And influential religious leaders like Rev. Thomas Hooker preached to the approximately <a href="https://www.amazon.com/STILL-HOLD-THESE-TRUTHS-Rediscovering/dp/1935191926" target="_blank" rel="noopener">70-80% of colonial Americans</a> who attended church that, <a href="https://connecticuthistory.org/the-free-consent-of-the-people-thomas-hooker-and-the-fundamental-orders/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“The foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the people.”</a>
Both Coolidge and Lincoln believed American unity resides in the Declaration. For his part, Lincoln believed that the principle “all men are created equal” establishes a common moral sentiment. It is the right of every American to “claim it as though they were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh of the men who wrote that Declaration.” For so we are.
That is the electric cord in that Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world.
It is fidelity to a set of principles, rather than exclusive religions or ethnicities, that defines Americans.
Matching Lincoln, Coolidge <a href="https://coolidgefoundation.org/events/virtual-event-inspiration-of-the-declaration/#:~:text=In%20the%20speech%2C%20titled%20%E2%80%9CThe,created%20equal%2C%20that%20is%20final." target="_blank" rel="noopener">contended</a> that:
<blockquote>About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful … If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final.</blockquote>
Americans can find contentment, solitude, and pride in the resilient principles of the Declaration of Independence and the connectivity they offer.
In Fourth of Julys gone by, Abraham Lincoln and Calvin Coolidge delivered two speeches worthy of Americans’ lasting consideration. Who will be the next statesman to do so? It may be some time, as such genius is difficult to match. Yet perhaps it is not so essential that presidents today echo their masterful words. What matters most is that we Americans believe them ourselves.
* * *
Brenda M. Hafera is the Assistant Director and Senior Policy Analyst at The Heritage Foundation&#8217;s Simon Center for American Studies.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

American Flags in Foreground with the White House in the Background

Claiming Our July 4th Birthright

4th of July

Abraham Lincoln

Calvin Coolidge

Heritage Foundation

Presidency

Readers Pass

<blockquote>We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.</blockquote>
Those words, from the preamble of the Declaration of Independence, which the Continental Congress formally announced 248 years ago tomorrow, were written by men of courage. The founding fathers knew if they were to establish a government of their own, a system where the people had the power, it would take a fight. Not just any fight, a battle against the most powerful monarchy in the world. In which losing, not only meant death, it meant being labeled a traitor for the remainder of history.
Did the founders create a perfect system? Of course not. Not every person was equal, or free, or counted as a full person. Brother fought against brother 90 years later to help right those wrongs. Yet, through it all, we&#8217;ve marched forward as a country, always willing to be self-critical, and using the guiding principles our founding fathers laid out, tweaking where necessary, to create the freest, most spectacular nation the world has seen.
America is still not perfect now. But her imperfection is being used as the excuse to abolish her existence completely. That would be devastating, not just for us as citizens, but for the world. So in honor of our independence, let us highlight some of the ways we have veered astray from the path that led us to be the country we are today.
The border which makes up our nation is being ignored. If you read The Federalist Papers, especially Federalist No. 2 by John Jay, you&#8217;ll learn that one of the most important ideas advanced by the founding fathers is the idea that America keeps a cohesive, national identity. This was part of their argument to convince states to ratify the new U.S. Constitution. Over the last two and half centuries, America has become a multicultural melting pot, where different people of many races and religions can come together and achieve miraculous ends. That only works, however, when we agree that our American identity is stronger than that which divides us.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1400-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show with guest host David Cone</a></h4>
Increasingly, that is not the case. No care whatsoever is being paid to the type of individuals entering and remaining in our country. Now understand, I don’t blame anyone, ever, for having a desire to become American. That’s what’s supposed to happen when you’re the best. People vote with their feet, right? Well, when you leave your home country to come here, that’s the sincerest form of flattery. All of our ancestors did that at some point. But a nation cannot exist when the border that makes said nation what it is, gets ignored with impunity. Add a welfare state on top of it all and this becomes unsustainable. To paraphrase Milton Friedman, you can have open borders or a welfare state, but you can&#8217;t have both.
Consider now our national debt — well over $30 trillion. You might as well replace trillion with a made up word, what’s the difference? James Madison, the fourth president and one of the authors of the Constitution, <a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-13-02-0106" target="_blank" rel="noopener">once said</a>, &#8220;public debt is a public curse, and in a republican government a greater curse than any.”
Think now about our system of taxation. The mantra that carries us into Independence Day and echoes through the skies as if it were shouted yesterday, &#8220;No taxation without representation.&#8221; And that was over a 2% tax on a breakfast beverage. What do we have now? We’re taxed when we receive money, when we spend money, when we invest money, when we die with money. I leave a house every morning that is taxed, in a car that is taxed, fueled by gas that is taxed, to go to a company that is taxed, where I get a paycheck that is taxed, on the state level, then on the federal level, all the while playing this withholding game, where the IRS knows how much I owe but makes me guess, then if I’m wrong they can put me in jail. And none of that addresses the biggest tax of all, inflation, which is skyrocketing because the bureaucracy in Washington won’t turn off the printing presses, just to send those dollars, which should be used to better the lives of Americans, overseas. That’s what we put up with. Our great-grandfathers told King George to come get some if he wants a levy on tea, and we’re left with pennies for every buck we make.
How? Inch by inch. None of this happened over night. 248 years is a long time. The first American income tax wasn’t signed into law until 1861, then, more famously, we had the 16th Amendment passed by Congress in 1909 and ratified in 1913.
I could go on and on about the ways we&#8217;ve diverged from what the founders wanted: Our military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned about; Sex trafficking on an industrial scale; abortion on an industrial scale; Godlessness at every turn.
Yes, it’s true our founding fathers had differing points of view on religion, Thomas Jefferson particularly, but, to solidify my point, hear these words of John Adams after the official resolution of congress was adopted:
<blockquote>I am apt to believe that [Independence Day] will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty.</blockquote>
I doubt he could fathom what our children now see on a daily basis.
Here&#8217;s a clip from a &#8220;Pride Parade&#8221; in Los Angeles. And to be clear, this is one of the most sanitized clips I could find. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="001 Gay Pride" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/V0cTjuRGK1M?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
What kind of society tolerates this? Well, as of now, ours does. Every corporation and local government, with very few exceptions, supports this.
Despite all of these existential threats, heavy as they may hang on our hearts, we must never lose hope. We have marched together through much worse. But it does take work. We can not do the bare minimum, we can not turn a blind eye to the perils of our nation, and just expect that Star-Spangled Banner to wave in perpetuity.
So here are my suggestions for how to right the ship, so that America can celebrate another birthday, 248 years from now.
First: Vote. Vote for better leaders. The vast majority of our ancestors had no say in the people who ruled them. We do, yet roughly a third of Americans don’t let their voice be heard. We can complain ad nauseam about a two-party system, or that all politicians are the same, but we can change that. Inform yourself, read, and don&#8217;t just read about current candidates and policies. Read about American history. Read the Federalist Papers, the Constitution, understand what it took for us to have what we have.
Second: Prioritize family. The nuclear family. Form stable relationships. Get married and have kids. I will never understand how we arrived at a place in society where having a family is considered &#8220;white patriarchal supremacy,&#8221; or whatever leftists phrase is being used today, but I do understand that the goal of such phrases is to destroy this country, because those who state it understand how essential the family is for America.
Third: We must incentivize actions of good and deter those of bad. Yes, this seems overly-general, but I think about it every day. We have turned, upside down, every notion of what is good, and just, and beautiful. We have ignored, even sanctioned, misconduct to the point it is commonplace. There is a reason major cities across this nation are too unsafe to live in right now. That’s a byproduct of criminals not being punished for crimes. I&#8217;m not saying we need to bring back drawing and quartering, I’m just saying … we may need to bring back drawing and quartering. I have little doubt it would be effective.
We also must remember the purpose of education. The goal is not to write A+ on every kid&#8217;s paper, it’s not to spare feelings when a child is suited for something different than his peers. The purpose is not to fill college classrooms to max capacity, or to print as many diplomas as possible. It’s not to indoctrinate children with confusion to appease the sexual fetishes of misguided adults. If we’re to indoctrinate, let us do so with the words of Thomas Paine and Thomas Sowell. The lone purpose of education is to pass down the most essential knowledge, so that future generations may carry this country forward.
Lastly, especially in the age of social media, we must cherish our local communities, not merely live in them. Get outside, touch grass, help a neighbor, shop local. Live in such a way, that if the luxuries provided by the global establishment were to vanish today, you wouldn’t miss a beat. You would still be a leader, those closest to you can depend on.
This Fourth of July, as you celebrate with friends and family, remember the words of Will Durant, &#8220;A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.&#8221;

Quill and inkwell on top of Declaration of Independence

Independence Day Special — How America Can Win Again

Federalist Papers

Matt Walsh

A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/virginia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Virginia</a> college has continued to erase <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/american-revolution" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Revolutionary War</a>-era figures from campus to be &#8220;more inclusive,&#8221; including a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Virginia Peninsula Community College <a href="https://www.vpcc.edu/news/2023/08/Griffin,%20Wythe%20Halls%20to%20be%20Ranamed%20Kecoughtan%20Hall.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> this week that it would change the names of two halls, one named for Founding Father George Wythe and the other for Dr. Corbin Griffin, who served as a surgeon for Virginia Patriot soldiers.  
“Virginia Peninsula Community College is renaming Griffin and Wythe halls, which are connected and function as one building, to Kecoughtan Hall. The name is a tribute to the Kecoughtan tribe, the early settlers of the land where VPCC’s Hampton campus is located,” VPCC announced on its website.
According to school official Steven Felker, the process of changing over the signs will be “gradual.” The school had formed a naming task force and gathered feedback from faculty, student government, and others on the proposed changes. 
Wythe, who lived from 1726-1806, had a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Wythe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">storied career</a> in Virginia. As a law professor, he taught luminaries like Thomas Jefferson, Henry Clay, and John Marshall. In the years leading up to America’s war for independence, he served as a delegate to the Virginia House of Burgess, where he openly opposed the Stamp Act. During the war, he was a member of the Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence. He later attended the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and was influential in pioneering the field of constitutional law. 
Like many Founding Fathers, Wythe had a complicated relationship with slavery. Although he owned slaves, he was <a href="https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/explore/nation-builders/george-wythe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recognized</a> as an early proponent of abolition and worked throughout his life to free them. As a judge in Virginia, he <a href="https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=9604" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ruled in favor</a> of freeing slaves during an internal family dispute over the will of a Quaker landowner. 
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Less is known about Griffin, but historians know that he was a surgeon for Virginia’s revolutionary soldiers and <a href="https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=80985" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spent time</a> on a British prison ship outside Yorktown. He <a href="https://history.house.virginia.gov/members/3770" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was</a> also a Virginia state senator. 
VPCC was previously named Thomas Nelson Community College. Nelson was another Revolutionary War hero and signer of the Declaration of Independence. His name <a href="https://www.vpcc.edu/renaming/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was removed</a> so the college could be more “welcoming, inclusive, and representative of our unique region,” according to school president Towuanna Porter Brannon. 
Nelson <a href="https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/N000044" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was a member</a> of the first Continental Congress in 1776 and 1779, led Virginian forces against the British from 1777 to 1781, and was governor of Virginia.

John Trumbull’s painting, Declaration of Independence, depicting the five-man drafting committee of the Declaration of Independence presenting their work to the Congress. The painting can be found on the back of the U.S. $2 bill. The original hangs in the

Virginia College Removes Names Of Revolutionary War-Era Figures To Be ‘More Inclusive’

American History

Education

U.S.

Virginia

What, precisely, is it about America you love?
That’s the question this July 4 as just 29% of Democrats say they’re extremely proud of the country, accompanied by just 33% of independents and 60% of Republicans. In fact, Democratic love of country has always fallen far behind that of Republicans, even during the Obama era, when it hit a temporary high of just over 50% (Republicans at the time said they were extremely proud of the country at a rate of approximately 70%).
Why is it that liberals in the United States are so much less proud of America than conservatives? These days, the answer typically given is America’s inherent sinfulness; there is nothing in the American founding worth conserving. On Independence Day, Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-MO) tweeted, “The Declaration of Independence was written by enslavers and didn’t recognize Black people as human. Today is a great day to demand Reparations Now.” Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) similarly tweeted, “This July 4th, we must remember that we stand on stolen land toiled by enslaved Africans and recommit ourselves to the fight for freedom, equality, &amp; justice so that these ideals are accessible to everyone, not just a privileged few. We are not free until everyone is truly free.”
America, to these types, is a platform for utopianism rather than a set of ideals worthy of emulation. The Declaration of Independence was a lie; the Constitution was merely a guise for power. And the quest for a perfect world must begin in tearing down such institutions with whatever means are at our disposal. The ends justify the means.
Thus, while Democrats fulminate over supposed threats to democracy, a federal judge this week ruled that the Biden administration violated the First Amendment in pressuring social media companies to restrict free speech regarding covid and the Hunter Biden laptop scandal, among others; the Supreme Court ruled that the Biden White House had violated its constitutional boundaries in waiving student loan debt. Biden’s response: he pledged to utilize the executive branch to work around the Supreme Court’s ruling. 
Respect for the founding means respect for founding principles. Biden and his ilk have used a misinterpretation of one founding principle — “equality” — to vitiate the natural rights for which the founders originally fought. When the founders said that “all men are created equal,” they meant specifically that human beings had been “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” They did not mean, as Biden suggests, that all human beings ought to be made equal in result, or that indeed, all human beings are equal in all capacities. Biden’s idea is utopian nonsense; the founders’ idea was grounded in millennia of evidence and Judeo-Christian tradition.
Patriots celebrate the founding for what it was: a breakthrough in the nature of human governance, a ringing statement in favor of liberty from the heavy hand of tyranny. Today, too many celebrate the founding only as a platform for future change — change that would annihilate the ideals of the founding along the road to a “higher good.” This, presumably, is why Republicans are far more patriotic than Democrats even while saying that America is in the midst of a moral crisis; meanwhile, Democrats are far less patriotic while suggesting pride in America’s current moral state. Conservatives are disappointed with man’s sinfulness, but proud of the founders’ ideals; many liberals are disappointed with the founders’ ideals, and proud of man’s sinfulness.

Ben Shapiro 3 (1)

Do You Love America?

Ben Shapiro

Constitution

Cori Bush

Joe Biden

Rep. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cori-bush" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cori Bush</a> (D-MO) faced backlash on Independence Day for demanding that the U.S. pay reparations to black people.
&#8220;The Declaration of Independence was written by enslavers and didn’t recognize Black people as human,&#8221; she claimed. &#8220;Today is a great day to demand Reparations Now.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The Declaration of Independence was written by enslavers and didn’t recognize Black people as human.
Today is a great day to demand Reparations Now ✊🏾
&mdash; Cori Bush (@CoriBush) <a href="https://twitter.com/CoriBush/status/1676246695045218305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 4, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The response to her tweet was overwhelmingly negative as most of the responses were hostile.
&#8220;Don&#8217;t you think more than enough white people paid for it with their blood during the Civil War?&#8221; writer Ian Miles Cheong asked.
Jeremy Redfern, press secretary for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, tweeted: &#8220;You’re gonna need reparations for this ratio.&#8221;
&#8220;Today is a great day to shut the f*** up,&#8221; another account tweeted.
Chris Loesch responded, &#8220;This is rubbish. Cori has no knowledge of what the framers did or didn’t believe evidently or what their efforts were. She should understand why people like Frederick Douglass honored and revered them.&#8221;
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Political strategist Ryan Girdusky tweeted, &#8220;People like Cori Bush could never build anything as great as what she’s trying to destroy.&#8221;
&#8220;Shut up you buffoonette,&#8221; said attorney and columnist Kurt Schlichter.
Political commentator Varad Mehta added: &#8220;Just an absolute pile of rancid filth.&#8221;
&#8220;Of the 56, 11 signers were guilty of enslaving others,&#8221; Libby Emmons, editor-in-chief of The Post Millennial, tweeted. &#8220;Jefferson&#8217;s clause about the need to abolish slavery was removed from the document in order to appease the colonies that backed the practice. Adams, Franklin and 2 others were abolitionists.&#8221;

Democrat Cori Bush Slammed For July 4th Tweet

Congress

Politics

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
While the most famous passage from the Declaration of Independence stands today as a rallying cry for freedom and the bedrock of American commitment to civil liberties, when a committee first drafted it, the symbolism was not so simple.
“At the time they presented a serious challenge to the founders of our nation,” Robert George, professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University, explained. “Could they create a governing structure that would match the high moral standards they had set for themselves?”
Their initial attempt, the Articles of Confederation, was largely unsuccessful: while it did see America through the Revolutionary War, the government was toothless and had no real power over the states – and since significant changes were not possible unless all the states were on board, nothing got done. At the time, many observers at home and abroad believed the entire system would collapse.
The Constitutional Convention was called in 1787 to rectify this – its stronger federal government was checked with a separation of powers between the branches of government and between the federal government and the states to balance the need for central authority against the danger that authority might pose to individual rights.
The First Congress would ratify a Bill of Rights soon after the new Constitution was adopted to further enshrine and defend those individual liberties. But the centrality of freedom to the American project posed a fundamental problem to the burgeoning nation.
“How could America espouse freedom, and also permit slavery?” George asked.
Many of the Founding Fathers, including Presidents Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, were slaveholders who had inherited sizable plantations themselves, although they were keenly aware that slavery was a gross contradiction of the ideals of liberty they had bled for. 
Both men condemned slavery in their own time and made limited efforts to combat it or halt its spread – Jefferson pushed for an end to the international slave trade, and Washington freed all his slaves in his will and set aside financial support for them.
“I tremble for my country when I think that God is just,” Jefferson said, “That his justice cannot sleep forever.”
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While some have condemned the Constitution and other founding American documents as corrupt because of the moral impurity of their authors, George points out that every known civilization in human history up until that point had practiced slavery and that human beings are flawed and limited creatures. The founders did not perfectly condemn slavery, but they instantiated ideals that were fundamentally opposed to it, at great sacrifice and personal risk, and their ideals and example would be used to ultimately bring the practice to an end.
“We do not celebrate these and the other founders for their personal moral failures,” George said. “We celebrate them for their unique moral achievements….To judge these documents [The Declaration of Independence, The U.S. Constitution, and The Bill of Rights] as corrupt because imperfect men wrote them is, to say the least, foolish.”
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="The Constitution: A Moral Challenge | 5-Minute Videos" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Gz7wsz-Q8YM?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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PragerU Constitution

The Constitution: A Moral Challenge

Media

PragerU

Slavery

WASHINGTON – The National Archives Museum, home of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, now puts woke ideologies like <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/critical-race-theory">Critical Race Theory</a> and the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/1619-project">1619 Project</a> alongside the nation&#8217;s founding principles.
The museum made a hard Left turn under the leadership of former Archivist David Ferriero, a 2009 appointee of then-President Obama who also <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2022/08/15/from-bureaucrat-hack-to-grand-jury-witch-hunt-the-dojs-trump-raid-smells-like-spygate/">had a hand</a> in the Department of Justice&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/doj-to-unseal-more-documents-related-to-trump-raid-refuses-to-unseal-key-document">ongoing investigation</a> of former President Trump. Ferriero, who called January 6, 2021, “the worst day of [his] life,” as The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/05/11/archives-retires-jan-6-ferriero-mob/">reported</a>, resigned in April 2022 to ensure that a Democrat selected his replacement.
“It’s important to me, that this administration replace me,” said Ferriero, whose accusations about Trump taking items from the White House <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/national-archives-official-notified-doj-trump-probe-declined-clinton-emails">reportedly</a> led to the Washington grand jury that approved a search of Trump&#8217;s Mar-a-Lago home. “I’m concerned about what’s going to happen in 2024.&#8221;
Even though he&#8217;s gone, Ferriero&#8217;s mark on the National Archives is obvious to visitors. The official cathedral of our nation’s history, the Archives’ museum on Constitution Avenue, reflects a decidedly negative and partisan slant.
Visitors to the museum first enter the <a href="http://recordsofrights.org/">David M. Rubenstein Gallery</a>, sponsored by a hedge fund magnate who bought the Magna Carta and at whose Nantucket home Joe Biden <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/biden-vacation-democratic-donor-20-million-kiawah-island-estate">stayed</a> last year. Rubenstein formerly chaired the Duke University Board of Trustees, and Ferriero was a vice provost at the school. The exhibit focuses almost entirely on America’s failure to live up to its founding ideals.
“Americans of African descent were barred from exercising the rights guaranteed to all citizens,” says a sign near the front, with additional text explaining that slaves built the White House. Next is a section titled “Reproductive Rights,” which says that Margaret Sanger, the eugenicist founder of abortion provider Planned Parenthood, was a nurse who “dedicated herself to the women’s rights struggle.”
The exhibit highlights topics like the persecution of Native Americans and the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, with headers like “Separate &amp; Unequal,” “Denied the Right to Vote,” &#8220;We the (Straight) People,&#8221; and “Murder on Christmas Day.” It paints restrictions on immigration as racist, with signs saying, “Klan women press for quotas” and “No idiots, criminals, or paupers.”
<div id="attachment_424836" style="width: 755px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-424836" class="wp-image-424836 size-large" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/12-745x576.jpg" alt="" width="745" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/12-745x576.jpg 745w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/12-300x232.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/12-768x594.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/12.jpg 1419w" sizes="(max-width: 745px) 100vw, 745px" />The Daily Wire</div>
The gift shop sells the 1619 Project book — which, despite historians’ overwhelming <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/historians-shred-nyt-1619-project-claiming-slavery-defines-america">rejection</a> of its premise, claims that colonists fought for independence from Britain to preserve slavery — in not just one, but multiple locations. One bookshelf in the gift store consists of titles like &#8220;Who Was Harvey Milk?&#8221;, &#8220;What Is Juneteenth?&#8221;, &#8220;Who Is Michelle Obama&#8221;, and &#8220;I Am Sonya Sotomayor.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_424799" style="width: 545px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-424799" class="wp-image-424799 size-large" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/16-535x576.jpg" alt="" width="535" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/16-535x576.jpg 535w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/16-279x300.jpg 279w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/16-768x827.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/16.jpg 1427w" sizes="(max-width: 535px) 100vw, 535px" />The Daily Wire</div>
An apparent sports section consists of a cookbook from Shaquille O’Neal and books about Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, and Venus and Serena Williams. The gift shop even has mousepads featuring Ketanji Jackson, the newest member of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Despite the heavy focus on paraphernalia about black Americans who often had little to do with American history, one black man who did was conspicuously absent. When asked whether anything about Clarence Thomas was available, a clerk looked confused.
“We’ve got a kids&#8217; book about the Supreme Court that has Clarence Thomas in it, but we don’t have anything about Clarence Thomas,” she said.
<h1>&#8220;We don’t have anything about Clarence Thomas,” an employee said.</h1>
Critical Race Theory advocate Ibram X. Kendi&#8217;s book, &#8220;Stamped,&#8221; is for sale, as is a book simply titled &#8220;U.S. Presidents,&#8221; whose cover features Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and George Washington, but not Donald Trump.
<div id="attachment_424805" style="width: 626px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-424805" class="size-large wp-image-424805" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/7-616x576.jpg" alt="" width="616" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/7-616x576.jpg 616w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/7-300x281.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/7-768x718.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/7.jpg 1451w" sizes="(max-width: 616px) 100vw, 616px" />The Daily Wire</div>
The <a href="https://www.archivesfoundation.org/board-of-directors/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">board</a> of the National Archives Foundation, a nonprofit which raises money for the government entity, is advised by leftist filmmaker <a href="https://variety.com/2022/film/features/ken-burns-documentaries-benjamin-franklin-donald-trump-pbs-1235182021/">Ken Burns</a> and identity politics-obsessed former CNN journalist <a href="https://www.matteroffact.tv/watch-soledad-obrien-hosts-to-be-an-american-identity-race-and-justice-3/">Soledad O’Brien</a>. The store is a <a href="https://www.nationalarchivesstore.org/collections/the-kamala-collection" target="_blank" rel="noopener">veritable shrine</a> to Kamala Harris, featuring busts, bobbleheads, socks, and purported inspiring quotes from a woman best known for being an embarrassingly bad public speaker.
<div id="attachment_424821" style="width: 561px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-424821" class="size-full wp-image-424821" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/harris.png" alt="" width="551" height="287" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/harris.png 551w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/harris-300x156.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 551px) 100vw, 551px" />The National Archives Store</div>
On the second floor, museum visitors are treated to what comes across as a plea to abolish the filibuster, with headlines blaring, “The Majority Loses?&#8221; and “When having the most votes isn’t enough.” Only the Rotunda, which houses the nation’s founding documents, remains relatively untouched by partisanship.
The moment visitors exit the museum, they are confronted with a different reality. Directly outside the door, a sidewalk vendor was doing brisk business on a recent day selling paraphernalia mocking President Joe Biden.
“Let’s go Brandon!” an African immigrant shouted approvingly at the vendor as he walked past.
<div id="attachment_424827" style="width: 590px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-424827" class="wp-image-424827 size-full" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/1.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="413" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/1.jpg 580w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/08/1-300x214.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px" />The Daily Wire</div>
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National Archives

National Archives Museum Now A Shrine To Hard Left, Thanks To Bureaucrat Behind FBI’s Trump Raid

The National Archives Has Gone Woke, Peddling The 1619 Project And Ibram Kendi In The Constitution's Shrine

1619 Project

Donald Trump

Ibram X. Kendi

Post-liberalism has suddenly become all the rage these days, a cause célèbre in a burgeoning number of conservative journalistic circles. Conservatives should be exceedingly careful of giving a fatal sanction to damning critiques of The Enlightenment and classical liberalism. Here’s why.
When did it become fashionable for conservatives to bash the European Enlightenment? 
Or, to phrase the question another way, when did conservatives start celebrating intellectual eviscerations of the philosophical tradition undergirding the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the “Gettysburg Address”, and Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”?
Of course, American universities have long promulgated a steady potpourri of Anti-Enlightenment Leftist sentiment since the 1960s, disseminating a bevy of illiberal and postmodern notions—sometimes Marxist bromides about “false consciousness,” sometimes banal citations of Foucault about “power/knowledge” or how reality is a “social construct” that desperately needs to be “deconstructed” for reasons that seem to change every few years.
However, Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke, Adam Smith, Hume, Voltaire, and Baron de Montesquieu, to cite a few, are our philosophers. Their origins might be English, Scottish, or French, but many of their ideas are imbedded in the foundational documents of this nation. Jefferson thought Locke was one of the greatest men to have ever lived. Madison harnessed the ideas of Smith in the most famous of The Federalist Papers’ eighty-five essays, The Federalist No. 10. Montesquieu was quoted more than any other philosopher during the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. Hamilton was powerfully influenced by Hume’s reflections on commercial republicanism. 
“Inalienable rights,” “separation of powers,” the First Amendment freedoms, and a robust commitment to free enterprise and private property rights are all inextricably tied to what is unique and, yes, exceptional about the American Experiment. This bundle of practices and beliefs are typically associated with what is known as classical liberalism. 
Our Founding Fathers were classical liberals. When they wanted to hurl insults at one another, they would paint someone as an illiberal “monarchist” (Adams and Hamilton) or “anarchist” (Jefferson and Paine). Webster, Calhoun, and Clay were classical liberals. Abraham Lincoln was a classical liberal who labeled the Declaration of Independence “the apple of gold” and the Constitution a “picture of silver.” TR, FDR, LBJ, and Ronald Reagan were classical liberals—maybe not iterations modern Republicans would necessarily embrace, but still ardent believers in the classical liberal tradition underlying the American creed itself.
The formation of America, among other things, was a philosophical experiment in democratic self-government—an attempt to organize society from the bottom up, centering the locus of power not on the divine right of monarchs or the ecclesiastic diktats of established churches, but on the backs of ordinary human beings in possession of “natural” or “inalienable” rights who were rational and capable of exercising moral agency.
Until quite recently, American conservatives were almost universally committed to conserving the principles of the American founding—what Lincoln describes in his First Inaugural Address as “the mystic chords of memory.” Progressive college students might obnoxiously wear Che Guevara t-shirts on campus, but conservatives wax poetic when talking about Washington crossing the Delaware or reading the lyrical words of Jefferson in the apotheosis of classical liberal philosophy, the Declaration of Independence. Americans pulse with shame and pang with regret when reading Frederick Douglass’s, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July,” because we cannot deny the chasm between our liberal ideals and the presence of human bondage in our national history.
This tradition now seems suspicious to some. Jeff Deist, president of the Mises Institute,<a href="https://mises.org/wire/new-postliberalism"> succinctly describes this phenomenon</a>: “Postliberalism is having its moment on the political Right in America.”
Let’s hope the moment is brief. 
The argument of the post-liberals is now familiar.
A regime that champions individual liberty as its paramount virtue will eventually alienate itself from religious traditions, family connections, or any hint of community obligation. Liberalism, with its heavy emphasis on individual autonomy and sovereignty of the self, has encouraged its adherents to aggressively nurture every craving under the banner of choice and identity. The results have been a disaster. Civil society has become morally bankrupt, endlessly sexualized, and politically nihilistic while gorging on electronic titillation without end, effectively ruining our brains and corrupting our souls in the process.
A broader and more damning critique is that liberalism is an ideology without a meaningful telos or guiding purpose and is, thus, inherently chaotic. There is no aspirational truth, no grand project, no transcendent meaning. Liberalism is a political project that intensely relegates meaning to the personal realm. Fulfillment is not reached through politics or other locales of the public square. We are not collectively serving a divine monarch or supporting the ecclesiastic writ of an established church.
Thus, liberalism is built on the lower but firmer ground of universal rationalism and rights-based individualism.
I am actually quite sympathetic to these critiques; in fact, I wrote an entire <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hollowed-Out-Warning-Americas-Generation/dp/1684513804/ref=sr_1_1?crid=ZJJP007J97JN&amp;keywords=hollowed+out+adams+paperback&amp;qid=1654164206&amp;s=audible&amp;sprefix=hollowed+out+adams+paperback%2Caudible%2C182&amp;sr=1-1">book</a> chronicling how a cult of radicalized individualism has ensnared the souls of young people, hollowing them out by imperiling the quest for deeper meaning and purpose as young Americans today find themselves increasingly alienated from faith, patriotism, marriage, family, and friendship.
But John Locke isn’t our enemy. As Hoover Institute senior fellow Peter Berkowitz has <a href="https://freebeacon.com/politics/redefining-conservatism-to-remake-america/">noted</a>, “Lockean ideas are inextricably woven into the fabric of America’s national political culture.”  
Citizens in a liberal society don’t need to fight religious crusades or take part in utopian political projects to find some measure of happiness and fulfillment. We might be “men without chests,” satisfied with simple pleasures and localized ambitions, but this is actually a good and desirable outcome. We might just want to play tennis two nights a week. We might just want to read romance novels and save for a time share on the coast. We might want to move to Tennessee and lose thirty pounds by hiking on mountain trails. 
Many of the scholars who write these books and critiques are men and women of great genius and soaring erudition. Their books and articles are read by the high priests of modern American political culture. Their words echo. Their voices were magnified and given the sanction of prestige by famous<a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/may/21/rediscovering-conservatism/"> right-leaning newspapers</a> and magazines. Their scholarship is impeccable, and their credentials are second-to-none.  
And yet, there is something this high school teacher knows that they don’t: If post-liberalism becomes the orthodoxy on the American Right, this nation is in real trouble. Who will be left to teach and defend the guiding principles of the American republic? Who will tell the story of why the nation is worth defending and renewing for another generation?
What will it mean to be an American if we don’t believe in the “Laws of Nature?” What if we don’t believe in “inalienable rights” and “equal protection of the laws?” What if the universal chalice from which all Americans drink—“that all men are created are created equal”—runs dry and Martin Luther King’s “Dream” is deemed hopelessly naive? This is what is ultimately at stake. 
We live in a time Edmund Burke feared most, when tradition is airily abandoned and liberty descends into licentiousness. If cars are crashing too often in our society, the solution is to teach people how to become better drivers, not to decry the development of the car, itself. Classical liberalism isn’t perfect, and it is certainly vulnerable to excess.
However, as Winston Churchill <a href="https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotes/the-worst-form-of-government/">famously remarked</a> about democracy, ‘Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…’
Jeremy S. Adams is the author of the recently-released Amazon best-selling book Hollowed Out: A Warning About America&#8217;s Next Generation. He has taught American civics for 24 years in Bakersfield, California and was the 2014 California Teacher of the Year (DAR). You can follow him on Twitter @JeremyAdams6.
The opinions expressed in this piece are the author&#8217;s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Adams – When Did John Locke Become The Enemy_

When Did John Locke Become The Enemy? 

When did it become fashionable for conservatives to bash the European Enlightenment?

Conservatives

Liberalism

Thomas Jefferson

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