This is our Day of Deliverance; we are not Summer Soldiers

“I am apt to believe that [Independence Day] will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with shows, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.” — John Adams, in a letter to his wife Abigail, on July 3, 1776.

Storm Lake knows how to do it spectacularly. All hail the Storm Lake Tornado 2026 Boys State Tournament basketball team as grand marshals of the Big Parade come the Fourth of July. A blast of fireworks will keep poor Peach the Newshound cowering in the basement. Pork will be served.

If I tried to blow out 250 candles I would wheeze. I am less confident in my patriotism. My belief in the Promise of America has been put to the test. Democracy has been wheezing, truth be told, and freedom gasping.

Federal agents shot two people dead in the streets of Minneapolis for exercising their First Amendment right to assemble and demand a redress of grievances. Police raided the home of a Kansas newspaper publisher for reporting the news and killed her as a result. People are ghosted without due process in immigrant detention camps or shipped to dungeons in El Salvador or Libya. State legislatures are taxing without representing Black people by gerrymandering.

What a party pooper I am. Adams reminds us that this is a Day of Deliverance from oppression. Lighten up, man!

What would Tom Paine say?

“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.”

Like Ben Franklin, Tom Paine was among the first political journalists. He was a pamphleteer, of Common Sense and The American Crisis (source of the above quotation). Democracy is impossible without journalism, which is why Donald Trump is trying to gag the press.

Freedom is under full assault. Masked men with a badge could come and take you away without a hearing. It is happening. Trump wants to forget about Habeus Corpus so the deep state can bury you. In Iowa, civil rights are denied by the legislature to certain classes of people. Not all men and women are created equal, after all. Not everyone has the right to pursue happiness. If a book is “divisive” it can be banned in Iowa. If you are a reporter witnessing a protest in Des Moines, you can be arrested and charged — it happened. Trump charged two journalists in the Twin Cities for bearing witness during the ICE invasion.

This does not feel like freedom for all.

Yet, in the spirit of Tom Paine, the people are rising up.

When the goons murdered protesters in the Twin Cities, more protesters hit the streets until the goons retreated.

Everything started to deteriorate once Trump started gunning down White people.

They’re sick of polluted water. They demand decent schools. Iowa is not comfortable with ignorance and zealotry. I have faith that things will change this November.

Trump is not getting a free pass.  Not all judges are sluts, despite our state and federal supreme courts. The US Supremes are on the take, but there are enough judges with some integrity to at least slow down the Reichstag. I think even Justices Roberts and Gorsuch have some sense of shame and will not let the Republic go down in ignominy.

We can draw much hope this Fourth of July from Trump’s sheer stupidity. He has managed to sow discord in his base with a fruitless war on Iran and aimless trade wars with our best friends and allies. His vain endorsements leave resentful lame ducks like Sen. John Cornyn of Texas who will stifle Trump’s authoritarian agenda.

Candidates who stand up to corporate corruption and the corrosion of Iowa values are drawing a crowd. Ashley Hinson, who loves her some Trumpiness, is running scared from a man in a wheelchair, Democrat Josh Turek, as control of the US Senate hangs in the balance.

The public doesn’t like the king. It’s not just the economy. People detest living in a police state. They want a whole new government, just like Thomas Jefferson did. He argued that we have a right to stand up against despots. Our revolution is at the ballot box. The triumph of democracy is glorious.