https://reason.com/archives/2018/07/03/how-the-declaration-of-independence-expl

It turns out, though, that the issues outlined in the Declaration of Independence-international trade, immigration, choosing judges, political connections with Europe, the threat of "tyranny"-have a way of preoccupying citizens and bedeviling politicians even when the executive is elected rather than crowned.

Some may find it disheartening to discover that nearly 250 years on, the controversies over these issues are unresolved. Will Americans be feuding with Europe, and with each other, over tariffs, treaties, and tyranny, over judges and immigration, 250 years from now?

Another way to look at it, though, is that the duration of these debates is actually kind of reassuring. The United States has endured and even flourished through nearly two and a half centuries of quarreling about these issues. The platforms have changed-now we're arguing on cable television and on the Twitter mobile phone app, instead of in letters written with quills and carried on horseback. The topics of debate, though, are remarkably constant.

By that standard, President Trump and the response to him aren't unprecedented, or even deeply unusual. They are part of a long-running pattern, set in motion in 1776 or even earlier.

The persistent conflicts haven't prevented remarkable progress. America abolished slavery, expanded the vote to include women, and built itself from a brand-new collection of former colonies into the world's unparalleled military and economic superpower. We haven't yet, however, managed to settle once and for all some of the issues that animated the nation's founding.

In some sense that may even be healthy. Our foreboding about tyranny may have prevented us from sliding into it. Our founding opposition to political connections with Europe may have helped us avoid being dragged down into some of that continent's decline.

And if, since 1776, America's internal conflicts about trade, immigration, and judges have been settled mostly peacefully, we have to thank for it a founding generation that followed up the Declaration of Independence with a remarkably resilient and inspired Constitution. It is something to celebrate, too, this year on Independence Day.