The fear betraying the American Revolution

President Donald Trump attends the Great American State Fair kickoff rally. (Official photo from The White House)

By Rich Moniak

Two hundred and fifty years ago tomorrow, members of the Second Continental Congress embarked on a bold journey anchored by the radical truth that “all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

Declaring independence from Britian didn’t create a new nation. It ratified the ideals that the Minutemen in Massachusetts began defending at Lexington and Concord in 1775. Following their defeat at Bunker Hill a few months later, the Congress adopted a Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms in which they resolved “to dye Free-men rather than live Slaves.” 

And when the Declaration of Independence was signed a year later, they unanimously pledged their “lives, fortunes and sacred honor” to secure the freedoms we too often take for granted.

Fear isn’t mentioned anywhere in either historic document. But with much less at stake today, it’s the force animating most of the Republican Party and the biased right-wing media. It may even be the underlying reason why the Juneau Festival Association believes it’s inappropriate to express political opposition during a parade celebrating Independence Day.

“We are all afraid,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski said last year during a leadership summit in Anchorage. In reference to actions taken by President Donald Trump, she admitted to being “very anxious” about speaking out “because retaliation is real.” 

It’s very real. 

Consider the prestigious law firms that Trump targeted soon after taking office.  

Paul Weiss was singled out for having a partner involved in the Special Counsel’s investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and in cases arising out of the Jan. 6 insurrection. Fearing it would restrict their ability to obtain government contracts, the firm signed a settlement that included providing $40 million in pro bono legal services on causes Trump supported. 

Similar settlements were reached with eight other firms. 

Four others weren’t afraid to defend their constitutional rights. They sued the administration and won.

"Settling personal vendettas by targeting a disliked business or individual for punitive government action is not a legitimate use of the powers of the US government or an American President,” the judge wrote in the Perkins Coie case.

That hasn’t stopped Trump from taking aim at his perceived political enemies, including news organizations, late-night talk show hosts, and even a few private businesses. 

Or members of his own party.

In June 2020, Murkowski landed hard on Trump’s vendetta list when she endorsed a scathing critique of his presidency by former Secretary of Defense James Mattis. 

“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us,” Mattis said. “We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.”

Murkowski said those “words were true and honest and necessary and overdue” and added that she hoped they would help others find the courage to speak up.  

Trump responded by promising to campaign against her in 2022. 

But before endorsing “any candidate" with “a pulse” willing to challenge her, Trump ran into an objective truth he feared even more than informed, subjective criticism. He lost the 2020 election.

And 5 1/2 years later, that’s a truth he’s still afraid to acknowledge.

He’s not the only one. As we learned during the discovery phase of the Dominion Voting System lawsuit against Fox News, network executives are afraid telling the truth would cost them much of their audience. 

Almost all of Murkowski’s colleagues, including Sen. Dan Sullivan, and party officials from top to bottom, are slaves to Trump’s lies too.

That’s why they let him get away with publishing verifiably false accounts of the 2020 election and Jan. 6 insurrection on the official White House website. And tolerate the shamefully obvious contradiction between that and his earlier executive order describing “a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative.”

“The truth will set you free” is spiritual wisdom, not a partisan political issue. Fear of the truth about our nation’s recent history is poisoning our political discourse. And because it betrays the pledge that helped America’s Founders secure our freedoms, it has no place dictating the rules for any Independence Day celebration. 

• Rich Moniak is a Juneau resident and retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector.