In his editorial in the AZ Republic, George Will's assertion that the Declaration of Independence is entirely free from the influence of the "European past" and that it appeared like the ten commandments to point the framers of the Constitution in the right direction, ignores at least fifty years of debate about the subject both in England and France prior to the American Revolution. In the 1640s the English fought a civil war to establish the rights of Parliament over a tyrannical king. They went so far as to put their King on trial for colluding with the enemy and chopped his head off.

Anyone who reads the Putney debates "An agreement of the people for a firm and present peace upon grounds of common right and freedom." (October 1647) will recognize in them the wording and tone of both the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Primacy of the law and regularly elected officials are a central demand. Judging from today's debates, it would appear that a section of the population by their intolerance and blind support of a potential tyrant wish to return us to the worst days of European tyranny when leaders were not constrained by the will of the people as expressed through the law.