This is an opinion column.

Hard to believe it’s been 247 years since Tom Jefferson wrote those words we celebrate today with barbecue and baked beans and blowing stuff up.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Kaboom. That’s worthy of some Crazy Bill’s fireworks.

What a beautiful statement it is, there in a Declaration of Independence that spent far more ink outlining the misdeeds of King George III – who “excited domestic insurrections amongst us” and “made judges dependent on his will alone” – than the hopes and dreams of America as a standard for freedom and opportunity.

But that’s the line that holds it all together, that serves as a beacon to light our path and our progress toward making it all true. It is our raison d’être, our prime directive. It is the spark that fires America’s flame.

Let’s put it in 21st century terms:

It sure seems obvious. We believe everybody is born with the same right to live free and find happiness in his or her or their own way. It’s not up to the government to tell you how to live. It’s up to you – not your leader – to find your own way.

Not the way your mom or dad demands.

Not the way your governor or president or king thinks you should live.

Not the way of the mobs or the panderers or the fearmongers.

It’s up to you to define your happiness. And to go in search of it.

What a dream. What an American Dream.

So every time some politician says you are unwelcome in their state because of what you believe, put him on the side of the red coats.

Every time a politician tries to diminish the voting power of another group, by force or fraud or guile or gerrymandering or scheme in the name of the law, they smudge our very shine.

Every time they pander or legislate in a way that denies people the right to love one another, to be themselves, to worship or not worship as they please, to read what they wish, to study history, to think differently, they stand as opposed to the American dream as King George himself.

When they do it in the name of America, they slander this land and commit a treason against us.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are born free, that they remain free to live, and to pursue a life that gives them joy. Whether you understand it or agree with it or not.

Americans like to think freedom means we can do what we want. But that’s not the point. The point of a free society, the difficulty of it, is in allowing others to pursue their own joy and contentment, whether we agree with it or understand it or not.

That’s the American Dream. It’s more American than houses, or fireworks, or apple pie, and certainly baseball. We like to pretend it is more American than greed, but down deep we know better.

Every few years politicians gain strength, whether George Wallace or Ron DeSantis, by telling us different is dangerous, disagreement is strange, that the most popular way is the only acceptable way.

It works, often. But it is not the American Dream. It is our King George nightmare.

John Archibald is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner for AL.com.