EDITOR'S NOTE: Dan Barkhuff is the president and founder of Veterans for Responsible Leadership. A 2001 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, he served for seven years as a Navy SEAL and is now an emergency medicine doctor. Naveed Shah is a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq and currently works for the progressive veterans organization Common Defense.

The signers of the Declaration of Independence, which America celebrates this week, all knew they were putting their lives on the line. Benjamin Franklin is said to have muttered, “we must all hang together, or we shall all hang separately.”

Other WRAL Top Stories

At the time, treason against the King of England brought a punishment of being hung, drawn and quartered and often before large public audiences. As North Carolinians gather for Fourth of July festivities, we urge you to consider the risks our Founding Fathers took to establish the rule of law.

While the United States may have problems, our constitutional republic is a historically unprecedented representative democracy. So powerful is this idea that from the start Americans have given their lives to protect it. As veterans of the 9/11 wars, we often reflect on the many sacrifices made over the past 248 years.

This year, in what is shaping up to be the most consequential campaign season in our lifetime, a pillar of what holds this all together, the peaceful transfer of power, is under attack. In every election since 1788, except one, the losing party has always “willingly and peacefully” relinquished power to the opposition.

The exception was 2020, when Donald Trump whipped his supporters into such a frenzy that they attacked the U.S. Capitol to disrupt the official certification of results. America's courts and broader society continue to wrestle with what was an attempted coup d’état that occurred on Jan. 6.

Meanwhile, Trump continues to question the legitimacy of our elections and spread conspiracy. Among those conspiracies is a twisted interpretation of 1776, with Trump and his supporters wrapping their white supremacy in red, white and blue flags. They are also threatening violence again if the election does not go their way.

The American Revolution was violent. But it also contained the seed that grew this representative democracy: belief in the rule of law. Leaders from 13 colonies overcame the fear of potentially being hung, drawn and quartered by the English crown – and agreed to embrace rule of law as the foundation of a new society, an experiment that continues to this day.

For these reasons we have forged a coalition of veterans from different political parties and diverse backgrounds. Our mission is to ask Democrats, Republicans and Independents for a simple pledge – renounce violence this election cycle and honor the 2024 election results.

In North Carolina, our organizations have more than 5,000 members combined. We veterans comprise about 8% of the state overall and are a force at the polls. We and our military families seek a commander in chief who is guided by humanitarian values and who will have a steady hand at the helm.

In late May in Greensboro, we attended the Republican state convention where GOP leaders were echoing Trump by promoting violence on the campaign trail, in addition to dismissing the 2020 results. When we requested that they consider our pledge, they threw us out.

During last week’s presidential debate, Trump evaded three questions on accepting election results, and when asked about Jan. 6, he lied and blamed the mayhem on Nancy Pelosi, the then House Speaker. His fearmongering was in overdrive, as was his disregard for the rule of law and his disparaging of veterans and the concept of service.

Further threats to our democracy emerged Monday with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision that Trump and other former presidents are partially immune from criminal prosecution. As one of the dissenting justices wrote in a provocative hypothetical, the door is now potentially open for a commander-in-chief to order SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival, and not face criminal prosecution. Is that rule of law?

As you gather with friends and family on the Fourth of July, recite a line from the Declaration of Independence – that we are all created equal – and explain that more than 11,300 men and women from North Carolina have died overseas to defend that idea.

Then ask any Trump supporters nearby what they think Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson or Joseph Hewes, John Penn and William Hooper – the signers from N.C -- would say about Jan. 6.

Don’t be afraid to set the record straight.

Capitol Broadcasting Company's Opinion Section seeks a broad range of comments and letters to the editor. Our Comments beside each opinion column offer the opportunity to engage in a dialogue about this article. In addition, we invite you to write a letter to the editor about this or any other opinion articles. Here are some tips on submissions >> SUBMIT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR