Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas issued a blistering critique of modern-day progressivism in a rare public speech on Wednesday, describing the modern political philosophy as a threat to America’s founding principles.
Speaking to a packed auditorium of students and faculty at the University of Texas at Austin to mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas, the Supreme Court’s longest-serving justice, urged the nation to revisit the philosophical foundations of U.S. governance.
He said Wednesday that values embraced by the nation’s founders have “fallen out of favor” in recent decades and urged younger generations to stand up for their principles.
“I think if we don’t stand up and take ownership of our country, and take responsibility for it, we are slowly letting others control how we think and what we think,” he told the audience.
“Progressivism seeks to replace the basic premises of the Declaration of Independence, and hence our form of government,” Thomas said Wednesday evening, drawing a direct line between contemporary political movements and what he described as a departure from the Constitution’s original meaning.
“It holds that our rights and our dignities come not from God, but from the government,” Thomas said. “It requires of the people a subservience and weakness incompatible with a Constitution premised on the transcendent origin of our rights.”
The conservative justice also lamented what he said was the growing prevalence of “cynicism, rejection, hostility and animus” in the U.S., and perpetuated “by Americans,” and particularly, so-called “pragmatists” or self-described intellectuals.
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“They recast themselves as institutionalists, pragmatists or thoughtful moderates, all as a way of justifying their failures to themselves, their consciences, and their country,” he said.
Thomas’s remarks were part of a broader lecture series marking the Declaration’s 250th anniversary.
And though the tone of his remarks was somber, Thomas closed them with a soaring call to action, urging law students in the audience, and viewers watching the televised address at home, to have courage and stand up for their principles and ideals.
“In my view, we must find in ourselves that same level of courage that the signers of the Declaration have so that we can do for our future what they did for theirs,” he said.
The durability of American democracy, Thomas added, depends on it.
“I think if we don’t stand up and take ownership of our country and take responsibility for it, we are slowly letting others control how we think and what we think,” he said.
“If you think it’s losing confidence, then you get up and you participate. You don’t sit on the sidelines.”
