Krugman reminiscences about being in Lisbon in 1976 for the Bicentennial. I have my own faded memories about that celebration: the Tall Ships in NY harbor, the simple pleasure of being a kid at a time of picnics and fireworks. It seems odd to celebrate the document that asserted that true sovereignty lies with the people and not a monarch when a large portion of the this country seems to want to install a monarchy centered on an absolute dumpster fire of a human being. The Fourth is a time of sentimental idealism and nostalgia, yet we seem trapped in a dystopian moment of corruption, authoritarianism and just rank stupidity.
Yet, Krugman notes that the Bicentennial celebration was optimistic, in spite of the rather dreadful tenor of the times. We had just lost Vietnam, inflation plagued the land, we had rolling energy crises, crime was legitimately out of control, and we had just emerged from the Watergate scandal.
Krugman argues - and I'd agree - that in fact the Watergate resolution, with Nixon resigning in disgrace, abandoned by his party, was a large part of why were proud to be American. We had confronted the lawlessness of the most powerful man in America and called him to account. We had rebuked the concentration of power in the hands of a secretive cabal of criminality acting from the halls of the People's House.
So, I get why today feels like a broken holiday, and why it is hard to celebrate a country that allows Donald Trump more latitude than it did Richard Nixon, despite Trump's crimes being immeasurably large in quantity and scope.
When the Continental Congress voted to declare independence on July 2nd 250 years ago, that same day British troops landed on Staten Island. On August 22nd, they landed on Long Island and nearly enveloped Washington's army before it made a providential escape. Defeat on Long Island led to an abandonment of New York City - an abandonment that would last until the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Washington was beaten again at White Plains in October and he limped into Pennsylvania with only the tattered remnants of his initial force.
So, while today is the celebration and remembrance of that remarkable document that promised equality and self-government in the face of tyranny, I would point to another document, written in the aftermath of Washington's ignominious retreat from New York. Thomas Paine wrote in The Crisis:
THESE are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: It is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to set a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated....
My own line of reasoning is to myself as straight and clear as a ray of light. Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief break into my house, burn and destroy my property, and kill or threaten to kill me or those that are in it, and to “bind me in all cases whatsoever” to his absolute will, am I to suffer [permit] it? What signifies it to me whether he who does it is a King or a common man, my countryman or not my countryman? Whether it be done by an individual villain or an army of them? If we reason to the root of things we shall find no difference; neither can any just cause be assigned why we should punish in the one case and pardon in the other. Let them call me rebel, and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils were I to make a whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to one whose character is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man. I conceive likewise a horrid idea in receiving mercy from a being who at the last day [final judgment] shall be shrieking to the rocks and mountains to cover him, and fleeing with terror from the orphan, the widow, and the slain of America.
Happy 4th.
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