Independence Day “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 forevermore,” John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail on July 3rd, 1776.

Instead of celebrating, I worry, because American freedom is under attack. And those who swore to be “eternally vigilant” have failed.

But it is not some far-off terrorists who are attacking us here on our soil — at least, not today. Nor are the terrorists the greatest threat facing us. Comparatively, they’re more like an annoying mosquito that we’ve brought out the elephant gun to fight.

The greatest threat to American liberty today is our failure to maintain the eternal vigilance which is the price for that liberty.

The United States was founded on an amazing idea: that government should be accountable to the people, and may not abridge the rights of the people to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

One of the great debates at the time the Constitution was written was whether this should actually be written into the Constitution. While it was not, the states would not accept it without some sort of restrictions on the federal government being written down.

The Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution. — Preamble to the Bill of Rights

Eleven of the twelve proposed amendments in the Bill of Rights were ratified, the third through twelfth in 1791, and the second two hundred years later, in 1992.

Not that it mattered; as in politics in any age, the crisis of the day frequently won out over principles, and the race to find loopholes in the Constitution was on.

The people made the Constitution, and the people can unmake it. It is the creature of their will, and lives only by their will. — Chief Justice John Marshall

The long chain of abuses and usurpations can be traced back to 1803, with what was thought to be a minor court case,Marbury v. Madison, involving a bureaucrat who didn’t get a promised job when the presidency changed hands. Marshall declared that the law authorizing the Supreme Court to hear the case was unconstitutional. This ruling in an apparently trivial matter continues to haunt us today: Not that the Supreme Court decides such matters; that is beside the point. The point is, the Supreme Court should not have to decide whether a law is constitutional.

The laws Congress comes up with are so frequently called into question on constitutional grounds that I alone can’t keep up with them all.

And in many cases, the Court, for political or other reasons, has simply abdicated the duty it took on for itself, and declared constitutional laws that clearly were not.

What’s the problem?

Much of the problem can be traced back to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s so-called New Deal. Packed full of unconstitutional programs intended to recover the country from the Great Depression, and whose success in that regard was limited, many of them survived court challenges because Roosevelt threatened to pack the Supreme Court with additional liberal appointees.

FDR also succeeded in redefining liberty for a large segment of the American population, so that they would not recognize the true principles on which the country was founded, and would repudiate them if they did see them. His “Four Freedoms” start out okay, with freedom of speech and freedom of religion, and then take a dramatic twist to two other things which are not liberty: freedom from want and freedom from fear. These two so-called “freedoms” can only be provided at the barrel of a gun pointed at someone else. This is liberty? I don’t think so.

And the rest of the problem is that conservatives, who should know better, have largely failed to complain about the introduction and perpetuation of socialist programs, and failed to complain about anything else that undermines our liberty. Instead, well, you should read what one conservative has to say.

I do not love America in spite of its flaws. I like America’s flaws the way a man appreciates his lover’s quirks.

Without these flaws it would not be America, only a hollow ideal. Ideals are unattainable and are therefore phantoms of imagination.

I love America unconditionally. Like a good man loves his wife. Like a good son loves his mother. Like a good father loves his daughter. — The Jawa Report

You can clearly see that this conservative has no interest in maintaining eternal vigilance over the liberty that so many people have fought and died for — and indeed, still are fighting and dying over. Because liberty is an unattainable ideal, he says, we should give up, go have our backyard barbecues and our fireworks, and forget what Independence Day means. One gets the impression that if Saddam Hussein were elected President, he would still support the government.

“‘My country, right or wrong’ is a thing no patriot would ever think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying ‘My mother, drunk or sober.’” — GK Chesterton

And a quick word about those fireworks: John Adams wrote that we should celebrate with them, and yet in several states they’re illegal. This is liberty? I don’t think so.

And while I’m talking about John Adams, on Saturday President George W. Bush recited the same quote which appears at the beginning of this article, but left out the word “guns.” I have no way of knowing whether he omitted it or whether the speechwriter did. Either way it’s disturbing. More disturbing than that, though, was the rest of the address.

On the 4th of July we also honor the sacrifices made by each American generation to secure the promises of the Declaration of Independence. For more than two centuries, from the camps of Valley Forge, to the mountains of Afghanistan, Americans have served and sacrificed for the principles of our founding. . . .

As we celebrate the 4th, we also remember that the promises of liberty contained in our Declaration apply to all people. Because Americans believe that freedom is an unalienable right, we value the freedom of every person in every nation. And because we are committed to the God-given worth of every life, we strive to promote respect for human dignity. Today, all who live in tyranny and all who yearn for freedom can know that America stands with them. — George W. Bush

These words ring hollow from his mouth, for Bush has done little to protect and defend liberty, and much to undermine it.

Unfortunately, far from defending the Constitution, President Bush has repeatedly sought to strip out the limits the document places on federal power. In its official legal briefs and public actions, the Bush administration has advanced a view of federal power that is astonishingly broad . . .

President Bush’s constitutional vision is, in short, sharply at odds with the text, history, and structure of our Constitution, which authorizes a government of limited powers. — Cato Institute

Now all that power is going to wind up in the hands of a socialist Democrat sooner or later, and then, conservatives, you’ll be sorry!

So while the rest of you drive to neighboring states to buy fireworks and evade the state police returning home, while you fly your American flags and grill your hamburgers on grills that don’t meet fire codes, while you celebrate the liberty you think you have but which is actually draining away day by day, I am going to do something about it. And I urge all of you to stop and reflect on what we’ve lost and whether the loss of liberty truly is worth the little we’ve gained.