How Liberals and Progressives Should Celebrate America's 250th

[Celerity]

Let’s remember what was revolutionary about the American Revolution.

https://prospect.org/2026/06/23/how-liberals-and-progressives-should-celebrate-americas-250th/


Credit: Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images

This is the worst year—and a perfect time—to commemorate the American Revolution. The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is arriving at a political moment wholly inconsistent with the Declaration itself. Our own leader is a would-be king, responsible for “a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object,” namely his own power and glory, which he confuses with the nation’s. “Neo-royalist” is an apt term for his conduct of the presidency and his posture toward the world. Donald Trump has so thoroughly appropriated and degraded the celebration of the 250th that liberals and progressives may want to have nothing to do with it. But that’s a mistake.

Precisely because America has strayed so far from its founding heritage, this is a perfect time to celebrate, reflect on our revolutionary beginning, and recognize what the Revolution achieved and what it didn’t. The idea that the American Revolution wasn’t all that revolutionary has long had its advocates on both sides of the ideological spectrum. Some conservatives have argued that the Revolution aimed only to restore traditional British liberties, while some on the left have claimed that it only changed the form of government but left slavery undisturbed and even reinforced social inequalities. Neither of those views gives the Revolution its due.

Although it fell short of abolishing slavery, the Revolution did far more to advance freedom and equality than just restoring traditional liberties. It set in motion radical changes in both social life and government. This is the revolutionary heritage we should be celebrating. The American colonies were societies of inherited rank, where a wide gulf separated the rich and well-born from commoners, and where colonists with connections to the Crown—future Loyalists—enjoyed patronage and privileges. Birth order remained a critical source of inequality: In much of colonial America, as in Britain, the eldest son in a wealthy family inherited the estate under rules of primogeniture and entail. That system of inheritance in Britain had for centuries locked up landed wealth and power in a small aristocracy.

Cherished stories about the Puritans and other early settlers have misled us about the social status of most of those who crossed the Atlantic to the colonies. Data on colonial migrants on British ships show that the great majority came in an unfree condition. Most of the unfree were enslaved Africans, but more than half the whites arriving in the colonies south of New England came as indentured servants or convicts. Like the enslaved, they were bound to forced labor, subject to harsh control by their masters, and liable to be bought and sold. Unlike the enslaved, they were bound for a fixed period, generally five to seven years for indentured servants. At any one moment, according to the late historian Gordon Wood, about half the colonial population was legally unfree.

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[ZDU]

1. Red Coats, Red Hats

Both should be overthrown and their asses kicked to the curb

[cachukis]

2. So much of what we have been taught about our

heritage has been done with the same fervor presented by the Daughters of the Confederacy about the Lost Cause.
Only a few at the time of the Revolution, for example had access to a working rifle. There were few gunsmiths. In fact, frontier hunters used bows and arrows, learning from the natives. They had to get close to the game. Bullets, had a hard time getting through the trees from a distance. Arrows could be reloaded more easily if you had to follow a wounded animal.
We should be thankful for the exceptional life we have had as a beacon for freedom. We need to remind ourselves and perhaps some of our neighbors how easily one can be deprived of it.

[FalloutShelter]

3. Black arm bands