My response to the Fourth of July essay by postliberal CC Pecknold

A year ago, on the Fourth of July, my country was an idea — the idea embodied in the Declaration of Independence. The colonists did not fight for race, place or culture. They fought for an idea — the idea of freedom.

But this year, on the Fourth of July, C.C. Pecknold, a theologian and a leading voice of “post-liberalism,” tells us that America is “not an idea.” Writing on a site called “Postliberal Order,” he explains that “the nation” is “something real … a people and a place.”

He can see the change this year “after a season of enormously stupid prodigality.” The new America is marked by the fact that even in progressive neighborhoods “the grotesque stripes representing so many competing identities are giving way to the stars and stripes.”

He did not dare to quote the Declaration of Independence.

Once America’s creed

This was America’s creed a year ago: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

The founders were not perfect. They warred against the native peoples. They did not include women. They protected slavery.

But the power of their words was such that John C. Calhoun, in his fight to defend slavery, had to call the Declaration of Independence “a false and dangerous notion.” All the oppressors and autocrats throughout history have feared the words of Declaration of Independence. Those who have sought liberation have embraced those words.

A year ago, my country was trying to honor and fulfill the promise of the Declaration of Independence.

A year ago, America was the world’s leading contributor of humanitarian aid, largely through USAID. A year ago, America spread the message of truth and freedom through the Voice of America. A year ago, America had removed from its military bases the names of men who made war on their country in defense of slavery.

A year ago, America stood with democratic Ukraine in the face of aggression by the dictator Vladimir Putin. A year ago, America celebrated diversity, equity and inclusion. A year ago, gay Americans marched with pride, free to pursue happiness in their own way.

A creed now repudiated

We weren’t perfect either. We cared little about life when it came to the unborn. We attached ideological restrictions on humanitarian aid, where they had no place. We denied truth in favor of relativism. We turned the message of freedom into a party platform of conformity. We made diversity into a rigid formula of exclusion. We did not defend immigrants. We embraced identity politics rather than America.

These were all setbacks. But they were not repudiations of the Declaration of Independence. The promise of our founding was still calling to us across the years and generations.

This year, really for the first time in American history, we are told that ideas are just abstractions. That only the nation is real. That it is more patriotic to put America first. But that is not a patriotism our founders would recognize.

This year, we defunded USAID, leaving the poor and sick of the world to starve and die. This year, we closed the Voice of America, leaving the oppressed of the world without hope. This year, we restored the names of leaders of the Confederacy to our military bases, denying the descendants of slaves and the protectors of the union the honor of history.

This year, we asked Ukraine, “What’s in it for us?” This year, we removed Harriett Tubman’s image and words from the government Underground Railroad webpage, along with references to enslaved people and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. We removed the name of Harvey Milk from a U.S. Navy ship.

But, despite all this, we are today only diminished. We are not defeated. Tubman’s name and words are back on that government website. Everything else can be reversed as well.

We are undergoing a test of faith. But this is not the first such test. These are the times that try our souls. Thomas Paine’s words call out to us.

He knew of our test and our despair: “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”

People have died defending the promise of the Declaration of Independence. What right do we have to do any less?

The task for us today is, first, to recognize that our errors and shortcomings helped lead America to this dark place and time. We are not blameless.

Rededicate ourselves

Then, we must rededicate ourselves to the truths of the Declaration of Independence — not as a myth or ideal, but as a real working platform.

We must embrace once again the ideas of truth, equality, rights, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And, the idea of a government that serves these commitments and is limited by the consent of the people. To that platform we must pledge our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

If we do these things, on a future Fourth of July, we will have restored our country.

Bruce Ledewitz is professor of law emeritus at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University. He writes every other Monday. The views expressed do not represent those of Duquesne University. His previous article was “Donald Trump’s Iranian mistake.”

First Published: July 14, 2025, 4:30 a.m.