As the U.S. marks its 250th year, let’s celebrate the often-ignored colonial rebels who insisted that the Constitution include a Bill of Rights to prevent overreach by a government created for the wealthy. Today, the battle for democratic rights rages as Trump et al. attempt to shred the First Amendment — the rights to protest, speak out, cover the news and freely practice any religion or none. A powerful movement of modern rebels is reclaiming the revolutionary heritage of those early resisters.
Colonial class war
Although laborers, artisans and subsistence farmers were the ground troops in the war with Britain, rich landowners like George Washington took the reins of power after independence. In the founding of the union, the interests of the underdogs and their wealthy overlords clashed.
White men of property drafted the Constitution. The majority, the Federalists, wanted a strong national government benefiting their moneyed interests that could also quell uprisings by the “rabble.” The anti-Federalists opposed a strong central union for diverse reasons.
Southerners wanted powerful state governments to protect slavery. Conservatives today still tout state power to push their bigoted agendas. The Founding Fathers bowed to their Southern brethren, including provisions in the Constitution to protect the institution of slavery.
Radicals in the anti-Federalist camp pushed for democratic rights, fearing that strong centralized control would lead to despotism and rule by a king or tyrant. Said Mercy Otis Warren in her pamphlet Observations on the New Constitution, “No republic ever yet stood on a stable foundation without satisfying the common people.”
Popular dissatisfaction with the limitations of the Constitution threatened its ratification. So upper-crust liberals Madison and Jefferson borrowed from the radicals to draft amendments that added civil liberties and limitations on government.
Expanding the revolution
Although “We the People,” as the Constitution proclaimed, only meant white propertied Protestant men, the Bill of Rights allowed those who were excluded — freed slaves, women, Native Americans and others — to claim these rights for their own in subsequent centuries.
Because the first revolution failed to abolish slavery, a second one was necessary: the Civil War. The 14th Amendment, adopted in 1868 during postwar Reconstruction, promised full citizenship, due process and equal rights to Black people. It also applied the federal protections in the Bill of Rights to the states.
The promise was a hollow one, however, and to this day Black Americans are fighting to uphold the protections guaranteed them in the Constitution. Over 150 years later, if the Trump administration prevails, this amendment may be gutted.
Shooting holes in the First Amendment
Wanting no limitations on his rule, Trump is relentlessly blasting the First Amendment, especially free speech.
The assault on the pro-Gaza student movement demonstrates how the right to assemble has been shattered. Tactics included labeling defenders of Palestinians as anti-Semitic, arresting protest leaders like Mahmoud Khalil for thought crimes, and bullying university administrations. This campaign modeled how other protest movements could be abused.
In Minneapolis, Homeland Security put the First Amendment through a shredder. They violated the right to express political dissent without fear of government retaliation when ICE murdered Renee Good and Alex Pretti. When immigrant defenders rose up, the city was occupied by federal troops who were only expelled after labor and community organized a general strike.
Radicals, with their skills in organizing resistance, are especially in the crosshairs. In September, Trump issued a national security directive that requires the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force to investigate those whose ideologies include anti-Americanism, anti- capitalism and anti-Christianity. It also targets antifa, an antifascist viewpoint. This criminalizes not just speech, but thought. The language is broad enough to include protest movements as well as critics of the administration.
Freedom of the press, which allows the media to inform the public about the government’s actions — and when it is lying — is under severe attack. This March, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr threatened the broadcast license of any outlet that reported information on the Iran war that the president did not like.
Trump wants to change libel laws so he can more easily sue the media. He has brought court actions against a number of outlets for unfavorable coverage, including the BBC and the New York Times. Outrageously, ABC parent Disney settled their suit with Trump by agreeing to donate $15 million to his presidential library.
As for freedom of religion, the Supreme Court has long held “that one religious denomination cannot be officially preferred over another.” But arch-conservative Texas Governor Abbot designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a long-established civil rights group, as a foreign terrorist organization. He also excluded private Muslim schools from a state tuition voucher program.
But, like 250 years ago, the fight for democratic rights rages today. Many of Trump’s edicts have been deemed unconstitutional in courts across the land. Popular outcry led to the firing of two of his henchwomen, Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem. Eight million protested at the March 2026 No King’s Day. To turn back Trump’s autocratic attempts, a third American Revolution is needed, one that puts the vast majority, the working “rabble,” in charge.
