Independence Day: The True No Kings Day

True champions of the Declaration of Independence’s message of equal rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness don’t need another one.

On Flag Day, June 14, the Trump administration staged a military parade in Washington D.C. allegedly to commemorate the 250^th anniversary of the U.S. Army, but also conveniently on the president’s birthday. Being generous one may conclude that, in the name of government efficiency, it killed three birds with one stone, although the whole spectacle is said to have cost between $25 and $45 million.

I’m not a fan of military parades. A free country doesn’t need to demonstrate its strength through such displays. Reserve it for dictators and despots whose underlying insecurities require putting on a show to calm their anxieties about real and imagined enemies. A (somewhat disputed) quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower captures my sentiment: "For us to try to imitate what the Soviets are doing in Red Square would make us look weak." (substitute Putin’s Russia, Xi’s China, Kim’s North Korea, etc. for Soviets).

In response to the president’s penchant for parades, June 14 was declared “No Kings Day” by its detractors and demonstrations were staged around the country to protest the authoritarian tendencies of his administration. I welcome them to our side in the fight against authoritarianism in all its forms and for more respect for and protection of individual rights.

But is that what they are looking for? After all, where were they during the past 100+ years of ever-increasing government intrusion in our lives? Where were they when the 16^th Amendment was ratified in 1913 enabling the federal government to collect income taxes? Where were they when Social Security was forced on America by the Roosevelt administration? Where were they when Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare into law? Just to mention the tip of the iceberg of “Kings” programs violating the individual rights of Americans by forced participation.

In an excellent essay on his Substack, Dr. Thomas L. Krannawitter rhetorically asks the questions

Let me see if I understand: Progressives who insist on “No Kings” demand presidents—and an entire federal government apparatus—be constrained by the Constitution progressives have spent decades mocking, undermining, and ignoring?

And the same progressives who warn against monarchical power happily support millions of unelected, unionized bureaucrats issuing and enforcing their own “regulations” that have binding power of law over citizens, even though regulations are not laws?

Let me add that the responsibility for the massive individual rights violations we labor under are unfortunately not limited to progressives; they would not have been successful without the implicit or explicit support of voting-age Americans of most political stripes who wanted—and still wants—free stuff at the expense of their fellow citizens, or sanctimoniously or morally misguidedly pad themselves on the back for using other people’s money to further their altruistic agenda helping those “in need.”

What the June 14 demonstrators seemed ignorant about is that we already have a “No Kings Day.” It’s called Independence Day. On July 4 in 1776, the Continental Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration of Independence which stated that all men are created equal and have the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

I share some of the June 14 protesters’ grievances. I too have serious concerns about the current administration’s stretching of the law. But as long as they conveniently turn a blind eye to the individual rights violations they approve of, I cannot take them seriously. Dr. Krannawitter again:

If you truly want “No Kings,” then stop admiring the unelected, sprawling royal bureaucracy our government has become. Insist on government of the people, by the people, for the people, not a new, faceless crown of progressive regulatory agencies.

It is time to dethrone the bureaucratic monarchs among us and reclaim our constitutional republic. It is time we govern ourselves, individually, as citizens, as human beings. Let there be no kings in America of any kind or by any name, regardless of degree, license, credential, or bureaucratic title.

Amen to that. As you celebrate Independence Day this coming Friday, take some time between the burgers-and-beers and the fireworks to reflect on your positions. Are you a willing subject of the “King,” that is, an ever-growing intrusive government? Or are you a true “No Kings” champion of the individual rights that Thomas Jefferson eloquently put to paper in the Declaration? Are you a champion of phasing out Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid? Of defanging the regulatory state? Of immigration reform? Of a truly limited government? If unsure, pick up a copy of Think Right or Wrong, Not Left or Right: A 21^st Century Citizen Guide. Your reaction to its message will reveal the presence or absence of monarchical tendencies in you.

Happy Independence Day!