Patriotism, Politics, and the 4th of July

According to a story from U.S. News and World Report, there’s new research showing that 4th of July celebrations boost the GOP. I have no idea if the methodology is sound, but the researchers found that attending Independence Day events influences voting behavior. Key findings include: “When done before the age of 18, it increases the likelihood of a youth identifying as a Republican by at least 2 percent” and “It raises the likelihood that parade watchers will vote for a Republican candidate by 4 percent.”

Here’s more from the USNWR story.

Democratic political candidates can skip this weekend’s July 4th parades. A new Harvard University study finds that July 4th parades energize only Republicans, turn kids into Republicans, and help to boost the GOP turnout of adults on Election Day. …”The political right has been more successful in appropriating American patriotism and its symbols during the 20th century. Survey evidence also confirms that Republicans consider themselves more patriotic than Democrats. According to this interpretation, there is a political congruence between the patriotism promoted on Fourth of July and the values associated with the Republican party. …Their findings also suggest that Democrats gain nothing from July 4th parades, likely a shocking result for all the Democratic politicians who march in them. …What’s more, the impact isn’t fleeting. “Surprisingly, the estimates show that the impact on political preferences is permanent, with no evidence of the effects depreciating as individuals become older,”said the Harvard report.

I’m interested in how to get people to believe in freedom, not vote Republican, so I’m not sure what to think about the Harvard study. But my Republican friends can probably make a few snarky observations about whether patriotism is inconsistent with being a Democrat. My thoughts on patriotism, meanwhile, can be found here.

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A Left-Wing Plan to Replace the Ideas of the Founding Fathers with a “Declaration of Dependency”?

Like the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence is filled with old-fashioned ideas about liberty, freedom, and restrictions on the power of government.

But that’s no fun, at least if you’re a member of the ruling class. Heck, some people are using those musty old documents to argue that the crowd in Washington doesn’t have unlimited power to impose Obamacare. The nerve of those yokels!

There are rumors, though, that the Declaration of Independence is being updated to reflect the modern and enlightened thinking of the political elite.

Indeed, there’s even a draft of this new document, which was leaked when somebody in the Harvard political science department failed to use proper security when emailing edits to allies at CBS, the DNC, the IMF, and Justice Kagan’s office.

Apparently, the drafters are fighting over some of the edits. They know they want to replace “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.”

But they’re not satisfied with the current language, which reads, “They failed to erect a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither inadequate swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.”

You can click the link to read the full Draft Declaration of Dependence, but some excerpts are reprinted below to give you a flavor for the new approach.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people should be made equal, that they are endowed by their government with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are jobs, healthcare and housing.–That to secure these rights, Governments must rule over the people, deriving their just powers from the consent of the elite, –That whenever the people becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the Elite to alter or to abolish it, and to institute more Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect the power and control of the elite. …We, therefore, the Representatives of the political elite, in faculty lounges, Assembled, appealing to the United Nations for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of government, solemnly publish and declare, That the American people ought to be governed by the United Nations; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the Constitution, and that all political connection between them and the Founding Fathers, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as highly-taxed and dependent States, they have full Power to levy taxes, disrupt Peace, contract new departments and agencies, regulate Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which the political elite may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of the establishment media, we mutually demand your Lives, your Fortunes and your sacred Honor.

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