When we want to believe a “truth” we can deceive ourselves better than any con-man can. We want to believe in the America of the dream. We want to tell our kids America is great. We want it so bad we lie to ourselves about truths that stare us in the face. So the lie becomes the truth.
The Declaration of Independence is a statement of principles about government and the human rights of people that the folks that won the American Revolution proclaimed to the world were the ideas of America they were willing to fight and die for. Once they won the Revolution, the harder work of applying those principles began, and opposition went from the Tories supporting the English Empire to domestic opponents with their own interests and goals. That’s the human condition.
