250 Years: The Declaration & Democracy

An On Discourse Sponsored Event

Join the Department of Communication Studies for our annual colloquium series.

On October 6, we’re looking at The Declaration of Independence after 250 years. Dr. Brandon Inabinet will present his recent work:

“Borrowing Trouble? The Declaration’s Threshold of Suffering and Care” (published as Chapter 15 in Mary Stuckey’s recently released title: Used, Abused, and Sidelined: Debating the Declaration (2025)

The Declaration of Independence, like Twisted Sister, tells us that “we’re not gonna take it anymore,” and the “it” is expansive. This end of toleration spans not just the couple of dozen listed slights against King George III. The text goes further to imagine the breaking of a universal standard, of Anglo-American “natural rights.” And further, as explored in this analysis, the text indicts the lack of compassion for colonists’ suffering. Boundaries of acceptable suffering are a key aspect of revolutionary political texts. These thresholds can be real, but quite often they may be borrowed from other marginalized or maligned communities.

Dr. Inabinet’s presentation will also highlight his recent work with the Deliberative Citizenship Institute.