Let’s take a minute from politics and remember July 4, 1776. The US is the only country ever founded on an idea, as Jeff Jacoby reminds us:
“America was the first nation self-consciously founded as the embodiment of an idea — the “self-evident” truth that “all men are created equal” and endowed by God with an “unalienable” right to life and liberty.
In a world that had always connected nationhood and citizenship to blood, soil, and ethnicity, the democratic republic born in 1776 presented a prospect that was revolutionary in the profoundest sense imaginable — and Americans from the outset were certain that their model of self-government was destined to radiate outward, shaping the course of human events.”
It may sound a bit old fashioned now but those ideas were very revolutionary when they were written in 1776.
Happy July 4th: Remember that today is about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness!
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