All those firecrackers on July 4 got me thinking about the headline revolutionaries who signed the 1776 Declaration, fought the Brits for independence, hammered out the Constitution and installed our Bill of Rights. Old Ben, Monticello Tom, General George, Alex, “Pamphleteer Tommy” Paine, Jimmie and Dolly, Tea Party Sam, and others got America’s democratic experiment started, and they’re rightly saluted today, from school rooms to political gatherings of both major parties, as true patriots.

Reflecting on that generation’s remarkable impact reveals the historic potential of our people’s democratic spirit. But it also raises the unavoidable contrast with our present crop of leading political characters. This is worth noting now, because the Fourth has become the opening bell for America’s quadrennial presidential run (yes, ready or not, the first “debates” are only a month away, and Iowa’s Republican caucuses are set for January 15).

So here’s my question: Given the current state of our two major parties, would any of the Patriots of ’76 have a snowball’s chance in hell of being nominated for president of the country they founded? Consider George Washington. The GOP’s MAGA crowd would boo him off the stage, Trump would mock the general as “Toothless George,” and the party of Q-Anon, anti-woke nonsense, and Marjorie Taylor Green would place him behind überrich ego trippers like Vivek Ramaswamy and Doug Burgum.

Democrats? While today’s grassroots Dems would rally enthusiastically to the little-d democratic principles and firebrand activism of Thomas Paine or Samuel Adams, the party’s pusillanimous corporate-hugging establishment would bury both in a muddy deluge of money and lies.

This political reality check is not meant to depress us, but to provoke us into demanding and doing better. Okay, maybe greatness is now beyond us, but shouldn’t we strive for more than mediocrity and outright goofiness?

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