The Declaration of Independence's ringing words of "All mean are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" are well known. The next phrase is important, too. "That to secure these rights, governments are instituted amongst men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
As Morris notes, Trump has lost the consent of the governed. Most notably, in places like Minneapolis, the populace's protest, the broad uproar, is an example of the governed withdrawing their consent. That was true with George Floyd and the protests surrounding his death. Large numbers of Americans rejected the idea of an unaccountable police presence.
Conservatives often believe that the consent of the governed is limited to a few elections, and then people should submit to authority. If you take something like the civil rights movement, that was an example of a population that could NOT express their consent through elections, so they protested until they could. We are faced with a broadly similar dynamic today. We have to wait until November to express our consent, and until then, protest is our only venue to express that we do not consent to warrantless searches, wholesale corruption and the wanton disregard for laws and treaties.
The 250th anniversary of that declaration is coming soon. We should reinvigorate that document.
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