Okay, But Why Do We Celebrate the 4th of July?

This week is the 4th of July, which means we’re celebrating American independence. But what exactly is it that we’re celebrating? What’s so special about American democracy, and how does it work? And with everything going on in politics, should we be celebrating at all?

In a word: yes. America was founded on the principles of liberty, justice, and freedom from the tyranny of kings. And those ideals are as revolutionary today as they were in 1776.

This week’s episode of Okay, But Why takes a step back into history and examines the founding of our nation, from indigenous cultures to European colonies to the Declaration of Independence. The documents drawn up by the Founding Fathers created the rules for the democracy we have today. They shouldn’t be partisan; they’re as American as… well, the 4th of July!

We cover some things you may have already heard about — like the Boston Tea Party — alongside some lesser-known things like the fact that the first man killed in the Revolutionary War was a Black man, Crispus Attucks. Did you know that Georgia sat out the first Continental Congress? Or that Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship violates the 14th Amendment of the Constitution?

What we celebrate on Independence Day is about more than a document. It’s about a change in mindset – that people deserve the right to determine their own future, rather than one powerful man sitting on a throne. Simply being elected to office doesn’t give a president the right to violate the Constitution.

Look, is a document from 250 years ago perfect? Of course not. White land-owning men were the only ones who got to have those “unalienable rights,” for starters. That’s why Congress has updated it with amendments in the years since, starting with the 1st Amendment granting us the freedom of speech in 1791. But as the foundation of our democracy, the Constitution is a powerful thing. That’s why people called June 14th “No Kings Day” and it’s why we’re celebrating the 4th of July.

Transcript

Okay, But Why Celebrate The 4th of July?

CLIP:  Kevin Roberts: “We are in the process of the second American revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”
HCR: “I actually do believe we're in the middle of an American revolution, but it's not his. It's ours. It's like that original American revolution where people said,
‘Hey, we don't think we should have kings. We think that people should be treated equally before the law,’ even though at the time they only meant white men. That idea that we should all be treated equally before the law and have a right to a say in their, in our government. That's revolutionary.”

Narration: This week is the 4th of July, which means we’re celebrating American independence. But what exactly is it that we’re celebrating? What’s so special about American democracy, and how does it work?

Let’s start by going back to the beginning. By the time Europeans landed in North America, this land had been home to Indigenous people for at least 12,000 years. Tribes like the Lakota and the Cherokee had thriving and often very complex cities, and historians estimate that there were somewhere between 1 and 12 million people living here by the time Spanish ships arrived in the late 15th century.

It took until the 1600s for the British to establish their first colony in Virginia. From there, they expanded into what we now know as the 13 original colonies: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The colonies had some degree of self-governance but ultimately answered to Britain, who in turn answered to a single man: King George the Third. He began charging taxes to American colonists to pay for England’s war with France, like the Stamp Act of 1765, and the colonists decided they’d had enough of taxation without representation.

A group of men who called themselves the Sons of Liberty started gathering to share news and protest. By the time the British repealed the Stamp Act in 1766, it was already too late. American colonists wanted independence, and they were willing to risk everything to get it. In 1770, things turned violent when British soldiers fired on a crowd of colonists who were yelling and throwing objects at them. Five people died in the attack, including Crispus Attucks, a Black and Indigenous sailor. Attucks was the first person to officially die in the Revolutionary War and later became a powerful symbol for people fighting to end slavery. As Stevie Wonder sang in 1976:

CLIP: Stevie Wonder singing: “The first man to die for the flag we now hold high was a Black man.”

Narration: The British could read the room and saw how upset the colonists were, cancelling all but one tax: the tax on tea. But even that was one tax too many. Americans refused to allow British tea to enter the colonies and dumped huge cases of it into the ocean. Tea was extremely valuable at the time, so the British were pretty upset. They closed the port of Boston and sent a bunch of British troops into Massachusetts, demanding payment for the tea they dumped. Not only did the colonists refuse, in 1774 they formed the first Continental Congress.

Elected delegates from each of the colonies got together in Philadelphia to talk about what they should do. (Or rather, 12 of the 13 colonies – Georgia sat this first one out, but got on board the following year in 1775.) They decided to keep banning British imports and wrote a strongly worded letter to King George asking him to stop taxing them, give them the same rights as British citizens, and remove his soldiers from American soil. They never even got a response.

By the time the Second Continental Congress came around the following year, the Revolutionary War was well underway and many British soldiers and American revolutionaries had been killed. The delegates tried one last time to appeal to King George, but this time he refused to even read their letter. So the congress continued to organize the Revolutionary army and declared America to be a new democratic nation by publishing the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776. The new country was based around the values of liberty and individual rights, rejecting monarchy and corruption.

So what does that actually mean in practice? Well, the Founding Fathers broke it all down in the Constitution, which was written in 1787 and went into effect in 1789. It’s actually the oldest and longest-standing official national constitution in the world. That document is where we get the basis of our whole system of government, with a separation of powers into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. The executive branch is the President and Vice President, the legislative branch is Congress (that is, the Senate and House of Representatives), and the judicial branch is our courts (the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, and 94 District Courts around the country).

You may have also heard this as “the legislative branch makes the law, the judicial branch interprets the law, and the executive branch administers the law.” It’s that last part that has people worried about the current state of our democracy. It’s not up to Presidents to make new laws. They can’t just issue a decree and expect everyone to fall in line. That’s what a king does, not a president. Executive Orders are basically like strongly worded suggestions, and can be blocked by Congress or the Supreme Court. A president can’t form or close an agency, for example, or decide how our tax money is spent. An executive order can’t violate the Constitution.

So far, just in the first 6 months of Trump’s second term, he’s published 157 executive orders… and some of them do violate the Constitution. For example, ending birthright citizenship, which violates the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which states “All persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside." Trump has also issued an executive order to shut down the Department of Education and move funding for programs like the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. That’s also illegal, since the President doesn’t get to open or close an agency or decide how tax money is spent. Those are decisions that can only be made by Congress, which they haven’t approved.

Both of these executive orders, and many more, are currently being challenged in court.  

The entire foundation of our country, including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, are built on the idea that presidents aren’t kings or dictators. They can’t just make laws with a snap of their fingers. What we celebrate on Independence Day is about more than a document. It’s about a change in mindset – that people deserve the right to determine their own future, rather than one powerful man sitting on a throne. Simply being elected to office doesn’t give a president the right to violate the Constitution.

Is a document from 250 years ago perfect? Of course not. White land-owning men were the only ones who got to have those “unalienable rights,” for starters. That’s why Congress has updated it with amendments in the years since, starting with the 1st Amendment granting us the freedom of speech in 1791. But as the foundation of our democracy, the Constitution is a powerful thing. That’s why people called June 14th “No Kings Day” and it’s why we’re celebrating the 4th of July.