Democrats plan to celebrate America’s birthday with mass nationwide protests and marches

Every year on July 4, citizens of the United States across the world celebrate Independence Day, the day in 1776, when the country declared its independence from the shackles of the British Empire. The adoption of the Declaration of Independence severed political ties with the British monarch, George III, and established the sovereignty of the United States, later ratified by the constitution of the United States on June 21, 1788.

Before July 4, the 13 original colonies of the Continental Congress were known as the “United Colonies”. In September 1776, during the American War of Independence (1775 to 1783), the United Colonies adopted the name of “The United States of America”. The Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the United States, recognized the independence of the United States, which officially ended the War of American Independence. The 13 colonies, which had been part of colonial America, were recognized to be free, sovereign and independent states.

Unfortunately, the glory of this Independence was enjoyed by only the white males over 16 years of age living in the 13 colonies. Independence did not, at that time, extend to white women and white children under the age of 16, slaves, men, women and children, and the numerous tribes of millions of native Americans, the original owners of this vast nation.

Frederick Douglass, a self-educated slave and one of the greatest Americans of the era of slavery, expressed the plight of all those Americans for whom “Independence” made no difference to their daily lives, in the keynote speech in Independence Day celebrations in New York on July 5, 1852:

“What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?

“I say it as a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me.

“The Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice. I must mourn”.

However, over the years, the independence of the Land of Immigrants has been legally and emotionally extended to all Americans. Those who live in this great nation and those who serve it across the world; Americans black, white and polka dotted; even “undocumented immigrants” whom America has welcomed, or at least provided refuge, over the years; immigrants, documented and undocumented, for whom America has been their asylum for decades; who have been productive citizens of a land whose economy would collapse if not for the back-breaking work they do for unscrupulous employers at often illegal wages, work which many a white American settler would refuse as such work would be considered infra dig or demeaning .

So we all celebrated July Fourth, the Birthday of the Land of the Free and the Brave. And we all enjoyed the freedoms, laws and privileges enshrined in its constitution.

Until the election of a convicted felon for a second term of the presidency, who, with his white supremacist fellow travelers and billionaire buddies, aided by a corrupt Republican majority Supreme Court, has been methodically dismantling, clause by clause, amendment by amendment the very constitution he has sworn to uphold – twice.

The main program of this new and transformed Republican Party since 2016 was to spew hatred on those Americans who were “illegal”, who took advantage of the shortage of labor, professional and menial, needed during the 20th century. Such undocumented “illegal” immigrants numbered nearly 12 million, who have been targeted for the “largest mass deportation in history”.

The concept was to initially deport undocumented immigrants with criminal records, and deport them to the world’s largest and most brutal prison in San Salvador. Unfortunately, in their illegal and cruel zeal, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have deported even legal immigrants with no criminal record to this hellhole. While admitting they had “made some mistakes”, they refuse to comply even with court orders to get them back to the US immediately.

The Supreme Court has made a recent ruling that the administration was not compelled to conform to rulings of the lower courts.

The slogans of the American Revolutionary War in the 1770s represented some of the main grievances of Colonists – “No Taxation without Representation” or the battle cry attributed to American politician, Patrick Henry, “Give me Liberty or Give me Death”. Both these slogans declared the Americans’ desire to rid themselves of the Monarchy of the British Empire.

Before the birth of the USA, the British imposed several Draconian taxes on the colonies, levies on goods like sugar, textiles, wines and coffee; the Currency Act restricted colonial paper money; the Stamp Act, was particularly harsh, as it imposed direct taxes on printed materials. The British supposedly used these taxes to fund their military presence, which the colonists considered woefully inadequate, given the fact they were given no representation in the British Parliament.

In spite of the fact that the American colonies had rejected the concept of the monarchy, they had done so because they favored the concept of a democracy, and not out of any disdain for the character of King George III. In fact, King George was a distinguished and well-loved scion of the House of Windsor, a Royal dynasty descended from Alfred the Great and William the Conqueror.

There is a parallel between the struggle against the British Empire in the 1770s and the struggle against the self-styled King of the United States of America in the 2020s. A struggle that is expected to be shown by protests of millions in many cities in the United States on Friday, July 4, 2025. America’s 249th, possibly the last, birthday.

Marches and demonstrations of millions in just about every city in the United States have been planned, with the slogans “No Kings” and “No tax cuts for billionaires” echoing the same sentiments of the same slogans against the British monarchy 250 years ago. The “King” under reference today is President Donald Trump, who has publicly declared his intentions of Royal reign, and has bestowed upon himself a golden crown.

Donald J. Trump is descended from an unlikely “dynasty”, the disgraced family of Johannes Sebastian Drumpf, a humble peasant born in the 17th century in Bobenberg am Berg, a little village in the Palatinate, Germany. Being of a restless nature, he moved to a nearby village, Kallstadt in the Kingdom of Bavaria, where he worked as a barber. His son, Friedrich Drumpf, suffered from delusions of grandeur, lied that he was related to the Wittelsbach dynasty, the rulers of the Kingdom of Bavaria. He was as dumb as a rock, but his genius in transforming a lie as the truth has been the moving force which has run through the dynasty over the years, culminating in the sheer genius of Donald Trump.

Friedrich emigrated to the United States in the 1880s to dodge the Bavarian military draft, because of a painful case of bone spurs, a continuing malaise of the family. Friedrich found his real talents in running brothels and restaurants in the mining town of Monte Christo during the Klondike gold rush. With the fortune made in the Klondike, Friedrich and his wife Elizabeth settled in Queens, New York, in 1905. He changed his name to Trump and started what proved to be an extremely successful real estate business.

Friedrich died during the Spanish flu in 1918, and his son, born in 1905 and appropriately named Friedrich Christ Trump, made a great success of the family real estate business in Queens and the Bronx in New York. On a starlit night on June 14, 1946, a baby boy, named Donald John, was born to the blessed parents, Fred and Mary Trump. Residents, especially in states like Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, to name just three, swear to the wondrous appearance of a blazing cross in the backdrop of a Swastika lighting up the southern skies on that fateful night.

A star was born.

I am not going to bore you with the saga of the Donald since 2016, an epic beyond belief of even the most impossible Hollywood movie; Tom Cruise himself would have laughed at the incredible script of this “Mission Impossible”.

Suffice it to say that the American Congress has given him, on the eve of Independence Day 2025, a birthday gift that has brought him ever closer to his dream of a monarchy run exactly according to his every insane wish by few of the richest men in America. Men who own more than 80% of the total wealth of the richest nation in the world. With the rosy prospect of that percentage increasing their wealth by a few more points in the immediate future.

As Donald Trump takes a victory lap at the passing of his Big Beautiful Bill, the biggest bill in US history, which narrowly passed the House on Thursday, June 3, time prevents me from making a detailed analysis.

However, in my usually prejudiced, Democratic and therefore totally accurate opinion, I can make these irrefutable observations:

=Many Republican members of the Congress were against some of the terms of the bill, especially the cuts to Medicare which will leave over 16 million Americans without healthcare; and to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), that provides food benefits to over 10 million low-income families (40 million people) to supplement their grocery budget, so they can afford the nutritious food essential to health and wellbeing.

Republicans, in spite of these objections, voted for the bill because they feared that going against Trump will certainly cost them their jobs in the midterms next November. Career before Country has been the unassailable slogan of Republican politicians since 2016.

=The bill will add over $3.1 trillion to the national debt in over a decade.

=The trillions saved on cuts on Medicaid and SNAP will be used to give tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans. According to Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna, “the top 20% in this country will get 60% of the benefits”.

=As at June 26, Trump’s approval rates in all polls remain underwater, with just 39% to 45% of all Americans approving of his performance during the first five months of his second presidential term.

However, there is little doubt that King Donald will, yet again, regain the popularity of the American people, in spite of any and all future stupid and cruel acts. He is armed with that aforementioned God-given genius of having some people believing in his lies, tolerating his vulgarity and incipient dementia, in the face of proven facts and the evidence of their own eyes.

By Vijaya Chandrasoma ✍️