CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Second Thoughts About Celebrating the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence

Isaac Jefferson, an enslaved blacksmith at Monticello, photographed in 1845. Tracy W. McGregor Library of American History, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library. Public Domain.

The hoopla surrounding the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence seemingly reflects another unfortunate instance of historical amnesia. Whether immersed in the white supremacist narrative promoted by Trump and his enablers or some liberal version of the high mindedness of the Founders, we are being asked to forget the foundational and ongoing tragedies of the United States of America.

As Isabel Wilkerson wrote in the “Afterword” to her brilliant book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent: “We are in an unspoken state of emergency. We have learned that freedom and democracy are not a destination or settled state of being but a fragile proposition, and their preservation is an ever-present duty of each and every one of us who cherishes liberty.”

Moreover, the blinkered vision of our national history remains an impediment to achieving freedom and democracy, let alone celebrating the full context of the liberty promised by “Declaration of Independence.” James Baldwin’s excavation of the “collection of myths to which white Americans cling” in his still resonant 1963 Jeremiad, The Fire Next Time, provides a starting point. Among those myths to which a majority of whites adhere, according to Baldwin, are the following: “that their ancestors........

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