Exactly twelve score years ago, “our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” More precisely: On July 2, 1776, the members of the Continental Congress agreed to declare independence. On July 4, they officially adopted the Declaration of Independence. On the morning of July 5, the Continental Congress dispatched printed copies of the Declaration to state assemblies and to the commanders of the Continental troops.
Two hundred and forty years later, on the morning of July 5, 2016, in the powerful, prosperous, and free nation that has grown up partly as a result of loyalty to the principles of that Declaration, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to quote the Washington Post, issued a “searing rebuke” of what he called Secretary of State Hil-lary Clinton’s “extremely careless” email practices. He “laid bare a litany of facts that amounted to a stern admonishment of her judgment, management and stewardship of state secrets.” Furthermore, the Post continued, FBI director James Comey “systematically obliterated many of the key defenses Clinton and her advisers have offered to reassure the public in the 15 months since the discovery that she used a private email system.”
Later that day, Donald Trump, the presumptive nominee of the other major political party, lavished praise on Saddam Hussein, a dictator who murdered hundreds of thousands of his own people, invaded neighboring countries, harbored and funded terrorists, and fought two wars against the country, the United States of America, that had sought, consistent with the principles of the Declaration, to constrain his aggression and limit his savagery. Trump had of course previously blamed President George W. Bush for lying us into war with Saddam and had condemned American soldiers who fought in Iraq as thieves.
The Declaration instructs us to hold to the truth and to seek to secure liberty. But we now have a presumptive Democratic nominee who is extremely careless with the truth. And we have a presumptive Republican nominee who is extremely careless with the cause of liberty.
The Democratic party appears to be just fine with their truth-challenged nominee. Much of the Republican party, by contrast and to its credit, is willing to rebel against its liberty-scorning presumptive standard-bearer. Hundreds of delegates to the Republican convention have organized to seek to force a true and free ballot of the delegates, with the hope of saving the party from Trump. This impressive grass-roots effort is something of a David-versus-Goliath fight.
David may prevail, as he did three millennia ago. But if he does not, there will remain just enough time for an independent nominee to get on the vast majority of state ballots and provide a responsible third choice to the American people. An Economist/YouGov poll conducted over July 2-4 found 30 percent of the American public saying that in the fall they’ll mostly be voting for Hillary Clinton and 25 percent saying they’ll mostly be voting for Donald Trump. No less than 40 percent said they’ll mostly be voting against Clinton or Trump (evenly divided between 20 percent mostly against Clinton and 20 percent mostly against Trump). In other words, there is an anti-Clinton, anti-Trump plurality in the country. An independent candidate could presumably win those votes.
Either a delegate revolt or an independent candidacy is feasible. Either would be in the spirit of the Declaration, which speaks of certain individuals as being “unfit to be the ruler of a free people.” Either would be in the spirit of the Federalist Papers, whose authors did not anticipate party government, and so did not anticipate party conventions or independent candidates running against party nominees, but who did claim, in Federalist 68, that
Insisting on a president who rises above Hillary Clinton’s talent for low intrigue and Donald Trump’s little arts of popularity would be in the spirit of the Founders. Can Republican delegates rally successfully to nominate such an individual? Will such an individual step forward as an independent alternative to Clinton and Trump?
Fireworks celebrating the Declaration and musicals commemorating the Constitution are nice. But it is up to us not merely to celebrate the Founders but to be dedicated to carrying forward the unfinished work for which they laid so noble a foundation.
Are we up to it?
