The Second Declaration of Independence
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have tethered them to institutions that no longer serve them, and to assume among the powers of the Earth a station of true representation and justice, as natural and moral law entitles them, a profound respect for humankind demands they should declare the causes which impel them to realign their governance.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, endowed with certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these rights, governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new governance, laying its foundation on principles that most likely effect their safety and happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for transient causes; and, accordingly, experience has shown that humankind is more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the interests of corporations over people, demonstrates a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such a government, and to provide new guards for their future security.
Such has been the patient suffering of the people; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to reassert their independence. The history of the present governing system is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having the direct object of establishing an absolute tyranny over the interests and well-being of the people. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
It has enabled corporate entities to influence elections through unchecked financial contributions, creating a class of representatives beholden to private interests rather than public welfare.
It has ceded power to lobbyists, allowing them to direct policies that strip citizens of environmental protections, labor rights, and personal freedoms.
It has engaged in deceit and secrecy, leaving the people uninformed, while policies that directly impact their lives are crafted in closed rooms accessible only to the wealthy and connected.
It has perpetuated economic inequality by prioritizing corporate tax cuts and bailouts, while abandoning citizens to face debt, wage stagnation, and rising living costs.
It has restricted access to essential services, allowing corporations to dictate the cost of healthcare, education, and housing, undermining the basic standards of human dignity.
It has neglected to address climate change with the urgency demanded by science and humanity, surrendering future generations to the ravages of environmental collapse.
It has suppressed workers' rights, weakening the protections that were once fought for with sacrifice, rendering the labor force vulnerable and expendable in the eyes of industry.
It has violated the people’s right to privacy, allowing mass surveillance and the commodification of personal data, often without the consent or even knowledge of the citizen.
It has burdened future generations with unsustainable debt, while profiting from the commodification of education, trapping millions in cycles of financial instability.
In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A governance, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a betrayal of trust, is unfit to represent a free people.
We, therefore, the representatives of the people of these United States of America, in general assembly, appealing to the principles of equity and justice that bind humankind, do solemnly publish and declare, that these United States are, and of right ought to be, free from corporate influence in governance; that we are absolved from all allegiance to those institutions which do not serve the people, and that all political connection between them and the corporate state, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free people, we have full power to establish justice, secure tranquility, provide for the common welfare, and reclaim a government by and for the people.
And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the sanctity of our shared humanity, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
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