freelansing in Seattle

JULY 4, 2024

A declaration of Americans against a return to imperial rule

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for people to dissolve the political bands that have connected them with a corrupt national government, and to assume among the powers of the Earth the autonomy to which the laws of Nature entitle them, a decent respect for world opinion requires an explanation of why such separation is necessary.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal and possess certain inalienable rights, including life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are created, deriving their just powers from the consent of their constituents. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter, abolish, or abstain from it, and to institute new government, based on such principles and in such form as will best promote their safety and happiness.

Declarations of independence should not be taken lightly, but when a long train of abuses and usurpations subjects people to absolute despotism, it is their right, even their duty, individually and collectively, to throw off such government and to create new forms of free association, cooperation, and governance.

The present Republican Party has a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, tyrannizing the people and various states of America, as well as other nations, peoples, and creatures of the Earth. To prove this, let these facts be submitted to a candid world.

They have ruthlessly worked to divide these United States, implementing minority rule through gerrymandering and overrepresentation of popular will in the US Senate and the Presidency.

Through this minority rule they have taken over the nation’s judiciary, which has defied the Constitution and reinforced the powers of minority government against the separations of powers our nation was founded upon.

This federal judiciary has declared our president a king, beyond legal accountability, in direct contradiction to our nation’s founding purpose.

The right of women over their own bodies has been rescinded.

The natural rights of many other groups of people have been imperiled.

The voting rights of targeted citizens have been restricted.

The ability of democratically elected public bodies to regulate privately imposed harms has been impaired.

Our nation’s schools have been prevented from teaching history and critical thinking, while books are banned, public media undermined, and systemic disinformation sown, so as to keep the public ignorant and obedient.

The necessary steps to ward off climate catastrophe have been repeatedly blocked, threatening not only our own nation but all nations and life on planet Earth.

At every turn, Republicans have striven to increase the wealth and power of the rich and large corporations, undermining the very possibility of democratic governance.

In these and many other transgressions, the Republican Party and their minions have undermined the common good of all Americans and all inhabitants of our common Earth.

In every stage of these oppressions we have protested, lobbied, and petitioned for redress, only to be answered by repeated injury. This is the mark of a tyranny unfit to govern a free people.

We therefore declare our independence from the Republican Party and its baleful policies, renouncing all allegiance to unjust laws of this regime, and assert our right and power to protect ourselves from imperial depredations while we expose the true nature of this toxic, authoritarian project, dismantle it, and put in its place a peaceful, just, sustainable, and democratic republic of free citizens. And in support of this declaration, we mutually pledge our lives, our actions, and our sacred honor.