Complaints against the king: 1776 and now | In Focus

There’s a great deal going on politically in this nation right now: ICE and CBP raids in Minneapolis, deaths of American citizens protesting those raids, attempts at voter suppression across the nation, a shocking 14-point win for Democrats in a district in Texas where Trump won by 17 points in 2024. There are the Epstein files where nearly 100% of Congress passed a law which the President signed demanding the DOJ distribute to Congress—the list could continue.

There are two major events coming up in 2026 that reflect our past, our present, and the future of this nation. The first date is July 4, commemorating the publishing of the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago. The second major event will occur on Nov. 3, the midterm elections.

Let’s look first at some key complaints that the 1776 committee penned against the British King:

“He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

“He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

“He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

“For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

“For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

“For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent [tariffs]:

“For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury…”

A federal judge quoted the Declaration of Independence when he freed a legal immigrant seeking asylum, Adrian Conejo Arias and his five-year-old son, Liam. Arias and Liam had been arrested in Minneapolis and sent to a detention center in Texas. The judge wrote a blistering condemnation of illegal current immigration actions by immigration officials.

It is ironic that the words penned 250 years ago are being relived in front of our very eyes.

The second date, Nov. 3, signals a key test of whether we will have fair elections or whether the current administration and the Republicans will be able to rig those elections through:

Nationalizing voting, actions specifically forbidden by the Constitution: Article I, Section 4, Clause 1 says: “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.”

Notice that it’s the states and then Congress that control elections, not the executive branch. The current administration is clearly acting unconstitutionally.

Here’s what attorney Marc Elias stated in his Feb. 5 Democracy Docket newsletter about this topic:

“Republicans in Congress are in electoral trouble — and they know it. At the heart of their dimming prospects in 2026 is the fact that Donald Trump is deeply unpopular, and that unpopularity hangs around their necks as an electoral anchor.

“There is no better predictor of a party’s performance in midterm elections than presidential popularity. It outranks party approval and the generic congressional ballot as a predictor of eventual outcomes.”

“Standing against this outcome is the second emerging narrative — that Donald Trump plans to subvert the will of the people by potentially rigging or stealing the election this November. Even before the most recent raid in Fulton County targeting 2020 election materials, Trump’s Department of Justice had already been taking steps to undermine free and fair elections.

“Over the past several months, the DOJ has attempted to strong-arm states into turning over their most sensitive personal voter data. States that have resisted have been sued. Attorney General Pam Bondi even tried to leverage Alex Pretti’s murder to blackmail Minnesota into turning over its voter file to the DOJ.

“Meanwhile, Trump has suggested that because Republicans are likely to lose this fall, “we shouldn’t even have an election.” He also lamented to The New York Times that he had not used the military to seize ballot boxes after the 2020 election.”

July 4 commemorates a tumultuous time in our history 250 years ago, when we were threatened by an authoritarian king who tried to impose his will upon Americans. Nov. 3 will determine whether a second age of tyranny will fall upon us or whether we will remember the words of the Declaration and stop him.

“We the People” will decide. “We stand at a crossroads: either America will be a multiracial democracy or it will not be a democracy at all” (Tyranny of the Minority p. 225).