The Last Independence Day

It’s a strange Fourth of July this year. We are celebrating the 250^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, but our nation is restless about it.

I was at Fishers Sparkfest last weekend, our local Fourth of July celebration. We had fireworks, music in bandstands, food trucks, face painting, kids with flags everywhere, all the usual trappings of an American summer festival. Most people acted like they were having a good time. But there is an undercurrent of concern in practically everyone I talked to, regardless of political stripe.

Heather Delaney Reese, an author on Substack that I like, wrote this week that this mood of apparent normalcy is terrifying her. She knows what is happening to our country, but people around her are going on with their lives as if nothing is wrong. I suppose this is just normal human behavior. We all have to live our lives and fulfill the obligations we all have. Life goes on. But it reminds me of the scenes early in a horror movie where everyone is just having a good time doing their thing before the villain shows up.

Are we overreacting? Are we just down our own propaganda silo like the MAGA Fox News crowd, being fed a steady diet of apocalypse on the left instead of the right? Is Donald Trump really OK, and the Iran War is really a good thing for America, and funneling billions of taxpayer dollars to Trump’s empire is just good business?

The truth can sometimes be difficult to determine. It’s five people watching a car accident and seeing five different things happen. We are each left with the personal task of sorting through the noise to find the truth. Reasonable people can disagree on some topics, but when one person says it’s day and the other says it’s night, we must make a judgment between two extremes. That’s where we are as a country this Independence Day.

No one can predict the future. Our nation may muddle through this as it has many times before, with a lot of injustice along the way. Maybe some forces of moderation will triumph. But we now face a possible future that was unthinkable ten years ago. Here is a brief thought experiment.

It’s 2030. President Vance has consolidated his power. The Congress is a rubber stamp for his decrees. The Federal courts, now packed with MAGA judges, only render judgments favorable to the regime. There is a war, of course, including our former allies attacking US bases around the world and drone strikes launched into our coastal cities. The Department of Homeland Security manages a secret paramilitary force numbering in the hundreds of thousands. They are everywhere. They drive the streets in armored personnel carriers with mounted machine guns. Supposedly they are focused on “illegals”, but anyone can disappear without a trace at a moment’s notice. There are rumored to be secret camps with 100,000 detainees scattered around the country. The borders have been closed to travel, the Insurrection Act has been triggered, and the Bill of Rights is suspended. Public gatherings are limited to three people. The press has been silenced, surveillance cameras have been integrated into a national network managed by Palantir for the DHS, and social media is used to monitor the population. Inflation is high, food is scarce, and many people are starving. The regime says everything is fine, and our duty is to support the war. Dissent is swiftly punished.

What if, in a few years, the United States has turned into a totalitarian dictatorship like this? What is the likelihood that this scenario will come to pass? Is it one percent? Five percent? Sixty percent? I can tell you this much: it’s no longer zero percent. Don’t we owe it to our children, and to future generations of Americans, to prevent this from happening?

Will we ever celebrate Independence Day again as a free people?

This is the reason our nation is restless. I believe that even the MAGA people see it. Some of them actually want dictatorship, but it’s a small percentage, and they are foolish beyond reason. Most MAGA followers want freedom and democracy, but on their own terms. They are being duped and used by the oligarchs and dictators-in-waiting that control our government.

However, all is not lost yet. MAGA has not yet succeeded in its goals of domination. We the people still have power and freedoms and nonviolent tools to stop them. It will not be easy or quick. One election will not fix our problems. But now is the time for us to act. Indivisible, Fishers Resists and many other groups are working together to revitalize our democracy. We have hope, and you should too. Please join us, and we will help you use your skills for the good of our nation. Your action will honor the 250 years of independence we have had as a nation, and all of the people who have sacrificed so that we might be free today.

May we all celebrate this Fourth of July in freedom, and remain free to enjoy many more.

By Phil

Notes

Protected Speech Notice

I publish this statement as political speech criticizing a government official’s public conduct, protected at the core of the First Amendment. This publication conveys criticism, opinion, and rhetorical hyperbole alone and neither threatens nor encourages unlawful conduct. Watts v. United States distinguishes protected political hyperbole from a true threat, while Counterman v. Colorado requires proof that a speaker consciously disregarded a substantial risk that the statement would be understood as threatening. No such intent or conscious disregard exists. I invoke my rights under the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments.