250 Years Without Democracy: The Significance of the Declaration of Independence

Ep. 82: Tad Stoermer on the Resistance History of the United States

“I think the Constitution is fatally flawed. And I think that the kind of reconstruction that’s required needs to get back to the kind of things that the radical Republicans couldn’t finish.” Historian Tad Stoermer returns to the podcast to talk about his new book, A Resistance History of the United States [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/808100/a-resistance-history-of-the-united-states-by-tad-stoermer/]. We talk about the audience Tad had in mind for his book, the conversations he’s had about his work, and what a resistance history might offer a hypothetical member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). We also discuss questions of political culture versus political structure, the Confederacy and Reconstruction as a “hot topic,” the need for a democratic constitution, the late historian Gordon S. Wood, and why Tad thinks that “containment is complete.” Tad mentions David Waldstreicher’s reflection [https://newrepublic.com/article/211543/gordon-s-wood-shaped-idea-america] on Wood’s life and work. We spoke with David [https://democraticconstitutionblog.substack.com/p/david-waldstreicher-on-slaverys-constitution-0c7?utm_source=publication-search] about slavery and the Constitution. Tad was last on the show [https://democraticconstitutionblog.substack.com/p/tad-stoermer-on-public-history-political?utm_source=publication-search] to discuss public history and political myths, among other topics. The image used for this episode is a map of the Underground Railroad.

250 Years Without Democracy: The Significance of the Declaration of Independence

This year is the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and its proclamation that all men are created equal; that they have unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and that they have the right to establish governments to secure these rights. Trump and the Republicans have been wrapping themselves in the flag and claiming they are upholding these principles. The Democrats are also wrapping themselves in the flag and claiming only they can defend us against Trump by upholding the Constitution. Of course, neither the Democratic nor the Republican Party is interested in universal and equal rights or a government and economy created of, by, and for the people. I explored the context, contradictions, influence, & contemporary significance of the Declaration’s assertion of universal and equal human and political rights. I argued that this assertion was and still is revolutionary because our Constitution denies equal suffrage. Attendees were encouraged to read my article (since paywalled on Jacobin but available here [https://democraticconstitutionblog.substack.com/p/this-july-4-lets-resolve-to-win-an]) on the 4th of July, excerpts [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1haOfXXs2cTdNSXbZi6d_rPhAf4baDJmex-n1FkgHT-o/edit?usp=sharing] from Frederick Douglass’s “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?,” and excerpts [https://docs.google.com/document/d/13CKYgyeuPevHEfoL-BUQRCywDDxX_WJIwXLeD1EHXJk/edit?usp=sharing] from Eugene Debs’s 1901 Independence Day Address.

Audio Article: What Would it Mean to Finish Reconstruction?

"What Would it Mean to Finish Reconstruction?" By Luke Pickrell. Original article here [https://democraticconstitutionblog.substack.com/p/what-would-it-mean-to-finish-reconstruction].

Ep 81: Dylan Penningroth on the Hidden History of Black Civil Rights

“If we want to understand Black people’s demands for the rights that America denied them, we must pay more attention to how they talked about and used the rights that were not denied them—the associational privileges and common-law civil rights they had been exercising for generations in county clerks’ offices and church basements—rights of everyday use.” Dylan Penningroth joins the podcast to talk about his recent book, Before the Movement: The Hidden History of the Black Civil Rights [https://www.dylanpenningroth.com/before-the-movement]. We explore the many ways Black people understood and navigated the law across different periods of U.S. history, including slavery, Reconstruction, and the civil rights era. We also discuss the rights exercised—and the abuses endured—by free Black people before the Civil War; why some organizations, like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), made strategic use of incorporation laws while others, including the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), did not; and what the struggle for rights can teach us today, including about contemporary Black conservatism and opportunistic uses of race. The photo above shows Freedom Summer volunteers and locals canvassing in Mississippi in 1964.

Ep. 80: Guy Aitchison on Popular Resistance and the Idea of Rights

“There’s a tradition of these rights being claimed by groups who were excluded and who they weren’t originally intended for, because they have that possibility inherent to them, which is the idea of universal equality and universal freedom.” Dr. Guy Aitchison joins the Democratic Constitution Podcast to talk about his 2020 article, “Popular Resistance and the Idea of Rights [https://academic.oup.com/book/33781/chapter-abstract/288538840?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false],” in which he argues for the role of rights as a vocabulary of political critique and struggle. Our conversation touches the neo-republican conception of rights, rights claims as speech acts and forms of communication, the importance of “moral rights,” and the Declaration of Independence. Listeners may find some of the themes familiar, including C.B. Macpherson’s concept of possessive individualism—discussed both in our reader [https://docs.google.com/document/d/19ejLXScq4hIEt0B8cNQKBDxHvxGu92iIquHWsf_8B4A/edit?tab=t.0] on universal and equal human rights and in my interview with Matt McManus [https://democraticconstitutionblog.substack.com/p/the-democratic-constitution-podcast-45b?utm_source=publication-search]—as well as the history of the Levellers, which I explored in a recent article [https://democraticconstitutionblog.substack.com/p/the-leveling-spirit-a9b?utm_source=publication-search]. Gil Schaeffer’s recent article [https://democraticconstitutionblog.substack.com/p/the-declaration-of-independence-and] argues for the radicality of the Declaration of Independence’s invocation of universal and equal rights. I make the same argument here [https://jacobin.com/2025/07/independence-day-constitution-democracy-bicentennial]. The photo for this week’s episode is from a 1964 demonstration in Atlantic City in support of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.