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On July 4, 1776, the American colonists issued the Declaration of Independence, a defiant rejection of King George III’s arbitrary rule and a bold assertion that governments derive legitimacy from the consent of the governed. This revolutionary document articulated a vision of liberty that inspired generations. Yet, it was riddled with contradictions, crafted by an elite cadre of white, male, property-owning slaveholders who upheld racial supremacy, patriarchal exclusion, and a political system favouring propertied interests. 

But as the US marks the 250th anniversary of this founding moment, a profound irony emerges. The ‘No Kings’ movement, a grassroots uprising against Donald Trump’s authoritarian ascent, invokes the spirit of 1776 to defend democracy while deliberately rejecting its oppressive baggage. Through a Gramscian lens, this movement represents a counter-hegemonic struggle, selectively reclaiming the progressive democratic elements of 1776 to challenge Trump’s monarchical ambitions and forge a more inclusive democratic ‘common sense.’ Here, we explore the movement’s nuanced reclamation of 1776, its battle against Trump’s hegemonic project, and the challenges and possibilities it faces in reshaping America’s democratic future.  

Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.

The contradictions of 1776 and the irony of 2026

The Declaration was a radical document for its time, though its authors were no democrats in the modern sense. Slavery persisted, women were excluded, and property qualifications limited political voice. Still, its universalist language provided a moral and political compass that subsequent generations – abolitionists, suffragists, civil rights activists – could wield against power. Over two and a half centuries, the U.S. expanded its influence, usually through conquest and empire, while domestically evolving toward greater inclusion, however unevenly. The New Deal, the Great Society, and post-1960s civil and women’s rights reforms represented progressive, if imperfect, advances rooted in popular pressure against elite resistance.

This trajectory has reversed with brutal clarity. The rise of Trumpism – first in 2016, consolidated in the 2024 election – represents not an aberration but the culmination of decades of neoliberal restructuring, elite failure, and cultural backlash. Donald Trump’s second term has accelerated authoritarian tendencies: assaults on democratic norms, concentration of executive power, politicisation of institutions, and a cult of personality that echoes the very ‘kings’ the Founders rejected. From efforts to reshape the judiciary and bureaucracy to inflammatory rhetoric, the administration has deepened divisions.

Crucially, this descent was not Trumpism’s nor the Republican party’s alone. The Democratic Party, ostensibly the party of progress, bears significant responsibility. Captured by neoliberal orthodoxy since the Clinton era – financial deregulation, trade deals favouring corporations, endless wars sold as liberal internationalism – Democrats hollowed out the working class base. Their embrace of identity politics without addressing material inequality, coupled with close ties to Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and the national security state, alienated millions. The ‘blob’ of foreign policy elites, think tanks, and foundations we have long critiqued continued to prioritise global hegemony over domestic renewal.

Barack Obama’s hope-and-change presidency managed Wall Street’s crisis without fundamental reform, expanded drone warfare, and deported record numbers while inequality soared. Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign epitomised elite disconnect. Joe Biden’s administration, despite progressive rhetoric, largely continued neoliberal and interventionist policies, failing to deliver transformative change on wages, healthcare, or climate. This bipartisan consensus – tax cuts for the rich, austerity for the many, perpetual military spending – bred cynicism. When Trump offered a disruptive alternative, however crude, it resonated with those left behind by globalisation and racial-cultural shifts.

As we have argued previously, we are in an ‘age of danger’ that features a legitimacy crisis of historic proportions. Trust in institutions – Congress, the presidency, courts, media, corporations – has plummeted. Polarisation has reached levels evoking the 1850s. Economic anxiety persists: stagnant real wages for many, gig economy precarity, housing unaffordability, and opioid deaths in deindustrialised regions. Cultural fractures over race, gender, immigration, and national identity fuel resentment. Trump’s rhetoric of ‘American carnage’ in 2017 proved self-fulfilling in many ways, as his policies exacerbated inequalities while promising restoration.

Events like the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection (in Trump’s first........

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