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THE ETERNAL MEANING OF INDEPENDENCE DAY (Posted annually since 2004.)
powerlineblog.com ^ | 7/4/2023 | scott johnson

Posted on 07/04/2023 12:24:51 PM PDT by bitt

THE ETERNAL MEANING OF INDEPENDENCE DAY (2)

President Calvin Coolidge celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1926, with a speech providing a magisterial review of the history and thought underlying the Declaration. His speech on the occasion deserves to be read and studied in its entirety. The following paragraph, however, is particularly relevant to the challenge that confronts us in the variants of the progressive dogma that pass themselves off today as the higher wisdom:

"About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

(Posted annually since 2004.)


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: constitution; independenceday; july4; justablog

1 posted on 07/04/2023 12:24:51 PM PDT by bitt
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To: null and void; aragorn; EnigmaticAnomaly; kalee; Kale; AZ .44 MAG; Baynative; bgill; bitt; ...

H/T Keflavik76


2 posted on 07/04/2023 12:25:29 PM PDT by bitt (<img src=' 'width=40%>)
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To: bitt

I just saw something that even 5 years ago would have made my heart swell with pride.
Today, it actually worries or even scares me.
I saw two F15s flying very low over NW Cochise county. The first ones I have seen in 4 or 5 years.
My first thought(s) was not pride, but was the regime going after some group they deem subversive?
Or was it just a show of strength to warn the citizens of what they have to go against any AR15s.


3 posted on 07/04/2023 12:34:50 PM PDT by Tupelo (A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand)
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To: bitt
Reagan was fond of Coolidge. A women sitting next to Silent Cal at a dinner told him she had made a bet . The bet was that she could make him say more than 3 words. 'You Lose' was all he said to her.

Silent Cal does not get much attention in the History Books. He had no grand collectivist plan on how he was going to transform America. Just did his job keeping us free.

4 posted on 07/04/2023 12:46:21 PM PDT by Nateman (If Mohammad was not the Anti Christ Mad Moe definitely comes in as a Strong second..)
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To: bitt

Happy true ‘Insurrection’ Day! Our founders did not run to another country, they changed their own and preferred “Dangerous Freedom, to Peaceful Slavery”.(Jefferson, I think)


5 posted on 07/04/2023 12:57:27 PM PDT by week 71
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To: Nateman

Another Coolidge fave:

When asked if he would speak at a fair, he replied: “No, I am just going as an exhibit.”


6 posted on 07/04/2023 1:03:42 PM PDT by nicollo ("I said no!")
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To: bitt

Didn’t Limbaugh’s grandfather have a written panegyric for Independence Day?


7 posted on 07/04/2023 2:45:33 PM PDT by StAnDeliver (Tanned, rested, and ready.)
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To: Nateman
Neither was Harding. Liberal “ Historians” denied him, and loved Wilson. Note that Wilson was a virulent racist, and Harding was the first President to publicly speak on Civil Rights.
8 posted on 07/04/2023 4:11:10 PM PDT by cowboyusa (YESHUA IS KING OF AMERICA! AMERICA FIRST! DEATH TO MARXISM AND GLOBALISM! there is no coexistence wi)
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To: bitt

Bumpity


9 posted on 07/04/2023 4:16:42 PM PDT by SauronOfMordor (The rot of all principle begins with a single compromise.)
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To: bitt

Ya’ll might try this. My cover article in World Magazine.

https://wng.org/articles/an-exception-to-the-rule-1687927257


10 posted on 07/04/2023 5:06:36 PM PDT by LS ("Castles made of sand, fall in the sea . . . eventually" (Hendrix) )
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To: LS

This is a great article, thank you for posting.


11 posted on 07/04/2023 8:21:15 PM PDT by ProgressingAmerica (The historians must be stopped. They're destroying everything.)
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To: ProgressingAmerica

Thank you.

It’s basically the introduction from “Patriot’s History of the United States” where we introduced the idea.


12 posted on 07/05/2023 6:08:59 AM PDT by LS ("Castles made of sand, fall in the sea . . . eventually" (Hendrix) )
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To: bitt

...governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed...


13 posted on 07/06/2023 3:58:14 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: bitt

bttt


14 posted on 07/04/2024 8:42:14 AM PDT by GOPJ (Biden can READ a speech IF written for him. Take the teleprompter away and Biden's a babbling idiot.)
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