We Hold These Truths…

We memorized the Declaration like a prayer.

“We hold these truths to be self‑evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.“

All men are created equal…

As children, we meant it. Everyone meant it, right? Our classmates, our schoolmates, our teachers, our neighbors, our coaches, our preachers…they all meant it, too, right?

We’ve always believed that America was different — not because we were perfect, but because we promised to keep trying. That promise was our gift to the world.

Emperors, kings, repacious conquest, brutal colonization, slavery, oppression…these were all things that you only found in history books and in far flung, “uncivilized” parts of the world, right?

And for a long time, I told myself the Democrats were the ones still trying. They talked about progress. They talked about human rights. They talked about diplomacy. They talked about the little guy.

But similar to what a great man once said, the Republicans were more like wolves, more honest: they show their teeth in a snarl that keeps us aware of where we stand with them.

But the Democrats, he said, are like foxes, another carnivore who also show their teeth to us but pretend that they are smiling. The Democrats are more dangerous than the conservatives; they lure us, and as we run from the growling wolf, we flees into the open jaws of the “smiling” fox.

I wanted to believe them and for a long time, I did.

Then I watched Bill Clinton sign those Iraq sanctions. UNICEF said half a million Iraqi children died. Madeleine Albright was asked if it was worth it. She said yes.

I watched Barack Obama drop more bombs than any president in American history. Twenty‑six thousand in his first year. He called it “precision.” But precision doesn’t matter when you’re dropping them on weddings and schools.

They didn’t say, “All American men are created equal;” they said all men…Palestinians, Iranians, Cubans…

Then I watched Joe Biden, the Joe Biden who talked about decency, supply the bombs that leveled Gaza. Smiled through a genocide. Didn’t lift a finger to reinstate the JCPOA (the Iran Nuclear Deal). Didn’t bother to reinstate the modest reforms towared Cuba that were in place under Obama.

The Democrats did this.

They built the cages that Trump filled. They deported more people than any president before them. They killed single‑payer health care and called it compromise. They let AIPAC buy their foreign policy and called it friendship with Israel.

And now they want us to be grateful. Now they want us to hold our noses and bring them back into power one more time, because the wolves are at the door.

Congress has a job to do.

Article I of the Constitution is clear. The power to declare war belongs to the legislative branch. Not the president. Not the generals. Not the lobbyists. Congress. The people’s branch.

But for fifty years, both parties have handed that power away. They’ve slowly but surely, intentionally, completely abdicated their powers; given over the power to start wars to the president, let defense contractors write the budgets, let AIPAC and other special interests dictate our alliances and then they hide behind “national security” when anyone asks why.

The young people see it.

They grew up watching these wars. They watched us lie about WMDs. They watched us arm both sides. They watched us call bombing campaigns “humanitarian intervention.” They know we have no reason to hate Iranians. No reason to hate Palestinians. No reason to Russians. The only reason we hate them in the modern world is because we were trained to, from a very young age. By the same people who now beg for our votes.

We’ve been trained to. Generation after generation. By the same parties that now wrap themselves in the flag and quote the Declaration while cashing checks from the military‑industrial complex.

I want my country back.

Not the one that bombs other people’s children and calls it freedom. The one we grew up believing exists. The one we believed built bridges, not bunkers. The one that believed all people are created equal — not just Americans, not just allies, not just people who bow to our power.

All people.

That country is still possible. But not with the Democrats. Not with the Republicans. Not with any party that has spent fifty years learning how to sell war as compassion and empire as security.

No Democrats. No Republicans. Just us.

The people who still hold these truths to be self‑evident. The people who still believe that Congress has a job to do. The people who know that the fox and the wolf are the same family — and that it’s time to stop choosing between them.

We hold these truths to be self‑evident…

All men are created equal…

Now we have to make them true.