ITN
US President Donald Trump has tweeted a military-themed, Independence Day video greeting to the nation.
OPINION: America celebrated its birthday this week.
Two hundred and forty three years ago Thursday, the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence. News of the declaration travelled slowly. A parade and party were held in Philadelphia where the Congress sat on July 8, a celebration in New York a day later, where George Washington and his army were encamped. By the end of August, the news hit London, to the ears of some indignant Britons.
By the time the declaration was drafted, the revolutionary war was already a year old. The colonists had experienced some successes in battles in Massachusetts against the larger and better-equipped Red Coats. It was time to set out in writing what those battles were fought to achieve.
The declaration's famous opening salvos guaranteed the "self-evident" truths that all men are created equal, endowed with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
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ANDREW HARNIK
Flags wave at President Donald Trump's 'Salute to America' event on Independence Day
The rest of the document reads as a laundry list of complaints against British rule and the abuses of the English King: His refusal to allow the colonists to make their own laws. Taxation without representation. His ban on the naturalisation of foreigners arriving to America's shores. The lack of independent judges. The practice of housing British soldiers in the homes of the colonists – a fox in the hen house scenario - which leaves no question as to why the prohibition against the quartering of soldiers in private homes featured in the second amendment to the US Constitution (just behind freedoms of speech and religion).
July 4, like Waitangi Day, is a summertime holiday awash with beers and barbecues. As a bonus, Americans get to marvel at metropolitan Guy Fawkes-style fireworks extravaganzas (and grumble at neighbours literally playing with fire in amateur backyard pyrotechnics).
It's also a time for navel-gazing. On a tyranny scale of one to 10, how well has the American experiment served the freedom its founders sought to guarantee by pulling the plug on English rule?
The polling firm Gallup asked that very question this week, measuring American pride for the seventeenth year running. The conservative magazine National Review screamed "Gallup: Democrats Drive U.S. Patriotism Plunge."
Overall numbers are down. For the second time since the poll began, less than half of respondents said they were "extremely proud" of their country. And yes, there is a partisan divide at work. Since polling began, a consistently higher proportion of Republicans have expressed "pride" or "extreme pride" than their Democratic counterparts. Ergo, National Review's dystopic headline.
A more concerning data point however, is not differences in response based on party affiliation. The lore of "freedom" and "patriotism" is baked into the vernacular of republicanism in a way it is not for Democrats. It is young Americans who express the lowest levels of American pride, and it is reflective of their new American normal.
ANDREW HARNIK
Independence Day isn't just for barbecues and fireworks, it's a time for reflection.
Harvard's annual youth poll released this spring revealed that half of young Americans experience anxiety as much as joy, and that their negative feelings are correlated with their opinion on the state of the nation. This includes discontent with the moral state of American leadership and their general view of government. Just 16 per cent of the 18-29 year-old respondents agreed with the statement that members of the Baby Boomer generation, especially elected officials in that age group, "care about people like them".
ANDREW HARNIK/AP
Fireworks seen from the Lincoln Memorial explode over the Potomac River for Independence Day, Thursday, July 4, 2019, in Washington.
Millennials and members of Generation Z grew up with school shootings. They are on track to have lower home ownership rates than their parents. They are crushed by student debt. They will pay for the tax cuts this administration just gave to corporate America. They also typically have the lowest voter turnout of any generation.
That has to change if young Americans want to declare their independence from the ruling class of baby boomers. Boomers who built an economy and society that worked for them, in their own lifetime, but who looked no further, for reasons related to political expediency and plain old short-sightedness. Boomers, whose ideas about economic opportunity, diversity, and the future of work and the planet are either non-existent, lacking, or run contrary to the needs and desires of America's youth.
It is not enough for young Americans to navel gaze this July, and this holds for the youth of any country. To rid themselves of the tyranny of an older generation, they will have to engage politically, declare their own inalienable rights, and fight for them.
Danielle McLaughlin is the Sunday Star-Times' US correspondent. She is a lawyer, author, and political and legal commentator, appearing frequently on US and New Zealand TV and radio. She is also an ambassador for #ChampionWomen, which aims to encourage respectful, diverse, and thoughtful conversations. Follow Danielle on Twitter at @MsDMcLaughlin.
Sunday Star Times
