Donald Trump and Elon Musk, two men who could easily play it safe, are putting it all on the line for American liberty. This is a first since our original revolution.

Rush Limbaugh used to talk about a story his father told about the signers of the Declaration of Independence:

Of those 56 who signed the Declaration of Independence, nine died of wounds or hardships during the war. Five were captured and imprisoned, in each case with brutal treatment. Several lost wives, sons or entire families. One lost his 13 children. Two wives were brutally treated. All were at one time or another the victims of manhunts and driven from their homes. Twelve signers had their homes completely burned. Seventeen lost everything they owned. Yet not one defected or went back on his pledged word. Their honor, and the nation they sacrificed so much to create is still intact.

The story had something of a resurrection in the early 2000s and was often shared in various iterations on social media. Not surprisingly, a minor industry emerged seeking to “fact-check” them. An example of such is this from Snopes, which first began fact-checking them back in 2005:

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died.

It is true that five signers of the Declaration of Independence were captured by the British during the course of the Revolutionary War. However, none of them died while a prisoner, and four of them were taken into custody not because they were considered “traitors” due to their status as signatories to that document, but because they were captured as prisoners of war while actively engaged in military operations against the British.

Snopes concludes that the piece they reviewed (not the Limbaugh piece) was “Mixed” in its accuracy. They’re right. Accuracy matters. Particularly in matters of importance. Snopes then adds something that backhandedly drives home the basic premise:

So great is our need for simplified, dramatic events and heroes that even the real-life biographies of the fifty-six men who risked their lives to publicly declare American independence are no longer compelling enough.

This is the theme that most of the gotcha fact checkers miss and, indeed, a point that those who seek to debunk the audacity of what those 56 did largely ignore: These men were committing treason. They knew they were committing treason. They knew the penalty for committing treason was hanging. Yet, they did so, risking everything they had.

What’s more, they weren’t committing treason against just some random monarch with a few colonies to protect. No, they were committing treason against the most powerful nation on the planet, which had a navy that dominated the seas and a reach that stretched across continents and oceans.

Whether they ended up dying of old age as Thomas Jefferson and John Adams did—on the same day, exactly 50 years from the date of the Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1826—or died during the war itself, as nine of the signatories did, all 56 of them knew they were risking their fortunes, families and their lives if they signed that document. And they did it nonetheless.

Today, there are millions of Americans ready to sign a new Declaration of Independence from the tyranny America has become. Tyranny, you say?

The American government in 2024 is far more tyrannical than the British government under King George III ever was. And it’s not even close.

With the federal government having passed over 88,000 laws and rules just between 1995 and  2016, today, it’s almost impossible for the average American to get through a single day, never mind a single year or life, without breaking the law. In his book Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent, civil liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate suggests that Americans commit three federal felonies daily without even knowing it. And that doesn’t include the countless state and local laws or other authoritarian fictions that tyrants create.

From a different perspective, consider this: In 1880, 30,000 prisoners were jailed in the United States out of a population of 50 million, for an incarceration rate of .06%. Today, there are 1.6 million prisoners in a population of 350 million, for an incarceration rate of .45%--and if one counts the additional 3.4 million others in the system via probation and parole, which didn’t exist in 1880—you get a justice system control rate of 1.45%. Are Americans somehow 25 times more criminalized today than they were 140 years ago, or are there simply more crimes for which they can be convicted?

As any conscious person knows, it’s the latter.

This makes what Donald Trump and Elon Musk are doing simply extraordinary. While there are millions of Americans who would be willing to sign a new Declaration of Independence if it came to it, those two are trying to avoid having that be a necessity. And they are risking everything in this fight.

Trump, unlike most politicians (presidents and members of Congress alike), has actually lost money since becoming president, to the tune of $1.6 billion! From the moment he announced in 2015 that he was running for president, the swamp used propaganda, lies, and lawfare to hamper his victory and prevent him from serving effectively. After he left the White House, the Swamp tried to imprison him. And now that he’s running again, the lies and propaganda are back. Beyond that official treachery, he was shot in a bungled assassination attempt and had at least one more thwarted.

Musk, while still the world’s richest man, has seen governments around the world target his businesses and threaten to put him in jail for purchasing Twitter and defending free speech. Indeed, just last week, California blocked one of his companies, SpaceX, from more launches from the state and explicitly identified his tweets as one reason for doing so.

And why is that happening? Because, as was the case with the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence, Trump and Musk recognize that the American government has become a tyranny. They recognize the government has become bloated, inefficient, and stultifying to American freedom and prosperity. In contrast, simultaneously, its fellow travelers in the media, finance, pharma, academia, etc., have become wealthy and above the law.

The duo not only recognize that tyranny, they’re telling American citizens they will destroy it. Trump promises to eliminate the Department of Education, while Musk wants to help slash government by 80%! For the cabal of government apparatchiks and the sundry hyenas who feed alongside them on the body politic of America, this is a declaration of war. It threatens their very existence. And it must be stopped, whatever it takes.

This is exactly what makes what Trump and Musk are doing so brave. Neither man needs to become embroiled in politics to live a life of luxury or provide one to their progeny. Indeed, both have knowingly and willingly put their fortunes and their lives in the crosshairs of the most powerful tyranny in all of human history.

We’re seeing the kind of courage that animated the creation of the greatest republic in human history. That’s the kind of courage that inspired men from 13 separate colonies to put their differences aside and fight for freedom.

Ideally, the courage we see in these two modern-day patriots will inspire citizens across America’s 50 states to utilize the ballot box to save the nation those 56 founders bequeathed to us. One Declaration of Independence should be enough. It’s to be hoped that we won’t need another.

Image by Vince Coyner. Follow Vince on Twitter at ImperfectUSA.