We the People: The Declaration of Independence, the Three-Fifths Compromise, and the Holiday That Was Never Meant for Us

"All men are created equal." Written by Thomas Jefferson — a man who enslaved more than 600 people over the course of his life. Formalized into a constitutional framework by James Wilson — the same man who helped write "We the People" and who also designed the Three-Fifths Compromise, the provision that counted enslaved Black people as three-fifths of a person to give their enslavers more political power in a government those people could never participate in.This episode does not celebrate the 4th of July. It examines it.That examination runs through the Declaration of Independence and what it actually promised, the Constitution and the contradiction written into it at founding, and a recent conversation with democratic reformer Tom Joseph — founder of the American Main Street Party and creator of the People's Primary model, built explicitly on James Wilson's legacy. When Tom appeared on eight other podcasts, every host celebrated the innovation: the blockchain, the approval voting, the app mechanics. Not one of them asked who "the people" included when the document was written. Not one connected "We the People" to the Three-Fifths Compromise written by the same hand.This show asked. It raised Texas Senate Bill 1, the 2022 mail ballot rejections that disproportionately hit Black, Latino, and Asian voters, and the core framework question: does this reform reach people locked out since 1787, or does it just make a closed room more efficient?250 years from the Declaration of Independence — and the answer to who it was written for is still being fought over in courts, state legislatures, and at ballot boxes that some people are still being kept from reaching.00:00 - Disclaimer01:01 - Introduction02:51 - The Thesis04:39 - Opening07:25 - The Background11:35 - The Data16:30 - Personal Thoughts19:28 - ClosingAfternoon Coffee Break with Darren Watts. Follow the show wherever you listen. Rate and review on Apple Podcasts — thirty seconds, it matters. Number 17 Cult All Time. Number 33 Business News All Time on Goodpods — because of you.