Kevin McCabe: Honoring the legacy of independence, no kings, and God-given rights

By KEVIN MCCABE

In 1776, a 38-year-old monarch ruled the world’s largest empire. King George III, a one-world globalist by today’s standards, believed sovereignty rested with the crown. He imposed this tyranny with a familiar list of offenses: a rigged justice system, martial law, political persecution, and incitement of domestic unrest. The people he ruled, our forebears, stood up and said no.

Those men, many of them preachers, farmers, shopkeepers, and scholars, did not have titles or armies behind them. What they had was conviction, courage, and a belief that rights come not from kings, but from our Creator. Among those rights, in fact the very first listed, was the right to life. Without the right to life, no other right  – liberty, property, or the pursuit of happiness – can exist. The founders placed life first because it is the sacred gift from which all freedom flows, a truth that compels us to protect every human life, born and unborn.

The Declaration of Independence is not just a historical document. It is a moral contract between “We the People.” The founders appealed to the Supreme Judge of the World because they believed the fight for liberty was not only political, but supremely spiritual. They understood that no government has the authority to take what God has given: not life, not liberty, and not the pursuit of happiness.

They pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor. And they paid dearly. Eleven signers of the Declaration lost their homes. Five were captured. Nine died during the war. Seventeen served in combat. These men were not chasing glory; they were Cathedral Builders, laboring selflessly to construct a nation that would stand as a beacon of freedom for generations to come. Benjamin Franklin said, “We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.” He was not being poetic. He was being brutally honest.

 Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1774, ‘The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.’ This truth—that life and liberty are inseparable divine gifts—formed the heart of the Declaration, compelling us to defend every human life, born and unborn, as the foundation of all rights.”

John Adams, writing to his wife Abigail in 1776, foresaw the cost of freedom: “I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure it will cost us to maintain this Declaration… Yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory.” His vision of hope through sacrifice reminds us that defending life and liberty requires unwavering resolve, just as it did then. The founders fought to protect the vulnerable from tyranny’s grasp. If we fail to defend the lives of the most vulnerable of all, the unborn, we betray the very reason this nation was founded.

This means supporting policies, organizations, and communities that protect life from conception, ensuring that every child is given the chance to live and thrive as the founders intended.

We hear much these days about rights, reproductive rights, privacy rights, health care rights, but we hear little about responsibility. The Greek word for citizen is “πολίτης” (polítis), which means co-ruler, co-king. That is your role in a Republic, someone entrusted to guard the rights and liberties of your neighbor just as firmly as your own. We don’t outsource indivisible freedom. We steward it.

Daniel Webster warned that miracles do not cluster. What happened once in six thousand years, he said, may never happen again. “Hold on to the Constitution,” he urged, “for if it should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.” He was right. The Constitution is not just ink on parchment; it is the last firewall against tyranny.

President Donald Trump said it well in 2020: “Make no mistake. The left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution.” There are those who seek not justice or equality, but power. In that pursuit, some would erase history, silence debate, undermine the sanctity of life, and dismantle the freedoms that lifted billions out of poverty and oppression.

But we will not bow or kneel to that agenda. We kneel only to Almighty God.

We believe in free speech, not speech codes. We believe in equal justice under law, not two-tiered enforcement. We believe that every person, of every color and creed, is made in the holy image of God, and that includes the unborn.

John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, wrote that the Revolution was marked by such divine favor that future generations might be tempted to dismiss it as a myth. It was not a myth. It was a miracle.

John Adams saw the birth of this nation as part of a grand design for the emancipation of mankind. If we are to honor that design, we must defend the rights it was built upon, especially the right to life, from conception to natural death.

We celebrated Independence Day yesterday, not just with parades and fireworks, but with resolve. A Republic means the people are king, ruling through their representatives. That is a tremendous responsibility. It means that “We, The People,” must protect our marvelous inheritance. As Senator Henry Cabot Lodge said in 1919, “Beware how you trifle with it, for if we stumble and fall, freedom and civilization everywhere will go down in ruin.”

So today, as we stand on the shoulders of giants, let each of us recommit to the-cause they bled for: defending the sacred dignity of all human life, born and unborn, upholding the rule of law, and ensuring a government that serves rather than rules. Let us protect the unborn, honor the Constitution, and never forget that liberty requires constant vigilance.

We stand on the shoulders of giants. Let us build a nation worthy of their legacy.

Rep. Kevin McCabe serves in the Legislature on behalf of District 30, Big Lake.