Every Independence Day it seems I am reminded of the now-decade old Harvard University study that found attending Fourth of July celebrations or parades as a child increases the chances that an individual will grow up to be a Republican, or at least someone with conservative politics.
David Yanagizawa-Drott, then assistant professor of public policy of Harvard's Kennedy School who co-wrote the study, tried to explain the phenomenon:
"The celebration of Fourth of July embodies certain ideas or values that are closer to the Republican Party. This in turn affects how children experience the event."
One of the reasons this always stands out at me is because I was doing a daily radio program at the time the study was released. While I now carry a great deal of personal regret for the way I too often conducted myself, part of the radio gig is inflaming and being provocatively potent in opining. And I had a heyday with this study, much to the chagrin of equally patriotic Democrats here in my home state of Indiana.
A decade later, the Holy Spirit has been very effective at knocking off many of my rough edges, taming my tongue, and humbling the arrogant pride with which I often used this study to smear an entire section of the population as less loyal to the American spirit. That doesn't mean, however, that the findings aren't worth exploring and contemplating.
Could it be that Independence Day stimulates interest in conservative politics far more than progressivism because it is a holiday designed to celebrate certain principles and attitudes that align with modern conservative ideology? That doesn't mean that Democrats and liberals care any less about the country or its future, or that they are opposed to the pageantry of the day – the cookouts, parades, flags and fireworks (note that I am excluding the left-wing fringe Twitter-verse that believes America is evil and want the anthem rewritten, Old Glory replaced, and Declaration rebuked).
It simply means that the values espoused in the American Declaration of Independence – the document adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, giving birth to the country and the impetus behind the holiday celebration itself – are far more aligned with modern conservatism. Consider:
To which the laws of Nature and Nature's God entitle them.
The claims and causes outlined in the Declaration are all predicated upon the fundamental belief that there exists a transcendent Moral Authority beyond the realm of mortal man, who has established natural, moral laws that man must obey. Would such a belief find a greater degree of acceptance on the right or the left in today's America?
We hold these truths to be self-evident.
The term "self-evident" asserts an absolute morality that persists regardless of man's preferences, desires, whims, or urges. The idea stands in sharp contrast with moral relativism, or a belief that man is capable of self-determining his own "truth" dependent upon circumstances and fashionable trends. Does the right or left in today's America tend to embrace – at least in some degree – the concept of universal natural law?
They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.
The Declaration presupposes that the rights of man were based on a higher law given by God himself. That claim is what justified those rights as "unalienable." If government gave man his rights, our Founders reasoned that nothing prevented the government from later denying or disparaging those rights when it became convenient. Is it the left or the right in today's America that believes in the autonomy of the individual over the power of the state?
That among these are life.
The Declaration proclaims that human life is inviolable, a divinely or naturally bestowed right upon which no man (or government) can infringe. Which side of America's current political power struggle comes closer to embracing and espousing that the measure of man's worth (from the womb to tomb) is not predicated upon what he can do, but upon what he is?
That among these are... liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The Declaration spends the majority of its time proving that no central planning agency could manipulate people into happiness. It sets forth the idea that the most productive society would be one where men were free to self-govern and use their unique gifts and passions to pursue whatever vision of happiness they imagine for themselves. It's not too difficult to imagine how the men who rebelled against "swarms of officers" who were "harassing our people" and "taxing us without consent" would feel about a bloated federal government seeking to increase an already high tax burden in order to fund new central programs that tell people how to live. Does that perspective represent a view of the modern right or left?
Firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence.
Ben Franklin, the least religious of all the Founding Fathers (who also happened to be one of the most influential and central figures in the adoption of the Declaration of Independence), observed "God governs in the affairs of men," and that just as a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without God's notice, the survival of our republic depended upon His providential aid and assistance as well. While no political movement has a corner on spiritual truth, would Franklin's assessment be better received on the right or the left in today's America?
Again, none of this is to say that a modern leftist can't appreciate the blessings of liberty or desire to see them transmitted to posterity. I can't think of one in my life who doesn't. But if we're wise, we will recognize that the best way to do that is to embrace an ideology similar to the one espoused in the same Declaration that got us here.
