We conservatives often bemoan the commercialization and secularization of our traditional holidays. Christmas – or should we say the Winter Holiday – now begins around November
15, Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day are occasions for mattress sales, not solemn commemorations of the sacrifices made to preserve our way of life.
Interestingly, researchers at Harvard University found that the July 4th holiday commemorating the announcement of the Declaration of Independence may still be serving its intended purpose – promoting patriotism.
The good news is it only seems to work on Republicans.
According to the study by Andreas Madestam and David Yanagizawa-Drott, "There is no evidence of an increased likelihood of identifying as a Democrat, indicating that Fourth of July shifts preferences to the right rather than increasing political polarization."
The three key findings of those attending July 4th celebrations:
When done before the age of 18, it increases the likelihood of a youth identifying as a Republican by at least 2 percent.
Celebrating Independence Day raises the likelihood that parade watchers will vote for a Republican candidate by 4 percent.
Celebrating the 4th of July boosts the likelihood a reveler will vote by about 1 percent and increases the chances they'll make a political contribution by 3 percent.
What's more, the impact isn't fleeting. "Surprisingly, the estimates show that the impact on political preferences is permanent, with no evidence of the effects depreciating as individuals become older," said the Harvard report.
It is worth noting that many of the grievances the Founders outlined in the Declaration of Independence had to do with taxes and big government, charges we regularly level at Democrats, such as Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, so perhaps it is understandable that the sentiments commemorated on July 4th don’t resonate with establishment Democrats as much as they do with conservatives.
However, we are not sure that turning children into establishment Republicans is a good thing; they might find themselves, like Republican Speaker in waiting Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, drawn to doubling the national debt, pork barrel spending, endless and inconclusive wars and bringing vast numbers of anti-constitutional immigrants to our country.
Given that the principled limited government constitutional conservatism of the MAGA Movement is the last remaining American political movement to fully embrace the values and guidance of the Declaration of Independence, it seems to us that if there was ever a time for Americans to recall exactly why we declared our independence it is this Fourth of July.
Here’s the list of grievances against the King and British government set forth in the Declaration of Independence:
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
While Biden and the Democrats have yet to quarter troops in the private homes of today’s Americans, you don’t have to analogize too hard to apply many of the ancient grievances of our ancestors to today’s oppressive and overreaching government.
Here are a few that come immediately to mind:
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us… by refusing to investigate and prosecute ANTIFA and BLM rioters.
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury… see J6 defendants dragged into court in Washington, DC and held without trial for going on 18-months.
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences… see J6 defendants dragged into court in the hostile environment of Washington, DC.
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States… see the murder of Ashli Babbitt by Capitol Police officer Michael Byrd, who was exonerated without so much as an interview by investigators.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation… see WHO and other treaties not submitted to the Senate for the constitutionally required ratification.
We could go on, but you get the picture – between Biden and Obama, Schumer and Pelosi, patriotic Americans could easily come up with a list that meets or exceeds the list of grievances that prompted our ancestors to declare their independence from an oppressive and overweening government.
Roe v. Wade overturned
Joe Biden
abortion
Fourth of July holiday
Independence Day
Democrats
Patriotism
Declaration of Independence
grievances against king