July 2: American Declaration of Independence is signed in Philadelphia, and ratified on July 4 – Public Domain

Two hundred forty nine years ago, at the beginning of the American Revolution, it was the prose of a newly arrived immigrant from England, Thomas Paine, that stirred the revolutionary spirit among everyday Americans. His clarion call for unity, freedom from British rule and vision of America as a safe haven for liberty is etched in the nation’s memory:

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country, but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman…. What we obtain to cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods, and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated ” (The American Crisis. Number 1” 1776-1783).

Our times are also the times that try men’s souls. The sanctum of freedom envisioned by Thomas Paine and other American revolutionaries has devolved into a country that detains, forcibly deports and disappears men and women incommunicado to distant prisons in total disregard of their constitutional rights; and one that punishes students for simply standing for what is right: an end to Israel’s barbarity against the defenseless people of Gaza.

The troubling question is how did a country that once put its faith in presidents like Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison and Lincoln descend to the likes of Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden and Trump. And from the counsels of Paine, why has America’s political class deigned to pay heed to the advocacy of the likes of Ben-Gurion, Meir, Begin, Shamir, Sharon and Netanyahu.

When considering America’s shift toward authoritarianism and in consequence, the subversion of constitutional rights, two causal factors spring to mind: the destructive U.S.-Israel entente and the growth of the Christian Right.

U.S.-Israel Entente

Decades ago the United States made the unsound decision to align its interests with and to invest heavily in Israel, a country that has, since 1947, been engaged in a genocidal project against the Palestinian people: “intent to destroy a........

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