What It Means to Be Brave
The Founders didn’t want us to cower in fear.
The United States was born out of adversity, strife, and—more than anything else—bravery. The founders faced down British muskets near Boston Common, declared independence from a world-bestriding empire, met its troops on the battlefields of Bunker Hill and Yorktown, nearly froze to death in the tundra of Valley Forge, and ultimately—through force of will and sheer human courage—proved victorious.
When the Founders signed the Declaration of Independence 249 years ago today, they did so in the face of all odds, with little reason to expect a successful outcome. Today, we sometimes like to skip over these ugly bits. And when we sing the national anthem, we just take it for granted that we still live in the “home of the brave.” But is that really how we’re acting right now? Are we showing the courage that is this country’s inheritance, and our birthright?
I don’t say all this to bum you out on your Fourth of July—I’m a fundamentally optimistic person. I’m optimistic about America, I think her people are essentially good and decent, and I think our brightest, best days might still be ahead of us. But for the first time in a long time, we can no longer assume that our democracy's survival is guaranteed. Benjamin Franklin’s famous “if you can keep it” clause is in serious jeopardy.
Today we are facing the worst authoritarian attempt in the nation’s history. Donald Trump has taken full control of the Republican Party and dominates all three branches of government. In his second term he has shown he is ready, willing, and eager to deploy financial and legal coercion—and violent force—to achieve his goals and break his political foes.
After promising to rule as a “dictator,” he has illegally deported US citizens, defied federal judges, and ignored the Constitution’s guarantee of due process. He has spoken openly and publicly about defying the rule of law. His masked federal agents have manhandled and cuffed sitting elected officials. And he has shown no signs of stopping or slowing down.
During all of this, his policies have been immiserating the American people. His tariffs have hit small business owners hard, making it impossible to plan for the future. His deportations have ripped families apart and cast a pall of fear over the country. And his DOGE cuts have stripped hardworking people of their livelihoods and gutted critical, lifesaving government services while damaging the scientific research that drives medical breakthroughs.
In the face of all this, rather than stand up, America’s so-called “elites” have shown remarkable cowardice. They have rushed to bow and scrape before Trump, giving rhetorical cover to his anti-democratic actions and filling his coffers with millions of dollars in hopes of escaping his wrath. In doing so, they have abandoned the ordinary Americans who bear the brunt of Trump’s disastrous policies.
Let’s look at some examples: When Trump targeted law firms with retaliatory executive orders, many of the nation’s top litigators folded instantly, pledging nearly $1 billion in free legal work to his administration. Rather than fight Trump’s sham lawsuits in court, giant media companies offered eye-popping settlements to appease the president and secure approval for their pending mergers. And Big Tech oligarchs like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have not only rushed to align themselves with Trump but even reversed longstanding policies to avoid becoming his next targets.
All of this—the base cowardice, the opportunism, the self-preservation at any cost—is antithetical to the teachings of our Founders. It is as un-American as Trump’s authoritarian overreach. In many ways, the enabling is worse, since these elites know better yet choose complicity anyway.
None of this is to say that we face the same choice that the Founders did. It’s not 1776, and we aren’t facing a distant monarch who rules from an ocean away. We did this to ourselves. The American people chose Donald Trump through the democratic process, and now we need to use the levers of democracy to stop him from continuing to wreck our country, our economy, and our way of life. What we need today is bravery of a different kind.
We need people—real, ordinary, everyday Americans—to stand up and speak out about the harm that Trump is doing every day. We need people who have been hurt by his tariffs, his cuts, and his war on immigrants to speak out, tell their stories, and make sure their fellow Americans grasp the reality of what is happening. We need these stories told because that’s the only way to build a movement to push back against Trump’s disastrous agenda.
That’s exactly why we started Home of the Brave: to tell these stories and ensure there is a counter-narrative to Trump’s steady stream of lies and propaganda. Already, we’ve heard from farmers who have been hit hard by Trump’s tariffs; mothers whose kids can’t access lifesaving clinical research because of DOGE; and families who live in terror of their relatives being snatched by masked agents and deported. And if you have a story to tell about being hurt by Trump, we want you to tell it today.
Those despairing of today’s anti-democratic threats should look to history. When the Founders wrote the Declaration that we celebrate today, they stated that “we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor … that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States.” They didn’t put their lives, fortunes, or sacred honor on the line so that we could, 249 years later, give in to a new form of autocracy.
Sarah Longwell is an Advisory Board Member and Spokesperson for Home of the Brave, a new initiative highlighting the harms of Donald Trump’s second term.
I hope Home of the Brave grows by leaps and bounds. May God have mercy on our country. On this fourth of July I am mourning all we once were and known by. We must continue the fight even though we are exhausted.
Beautifully said. Thank you Sarah.