The 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence is a good time to remember that the American Revolution wasn’t inevitable. It took a series of tremendous acts of courage.

Spend any time with the historical accounts of the Continental Congress, and you realize they were a ragtag group of lawyers, farmers and merchants who had the courage to challenge the unchecked power of a lawbreaking tyrant.

Many of the threats facing colonists more than two centuries ago are again confronting Americans today. Both legal rights and the rule of law are under assault — not from a monarch 3,000 miles away, but from an authoritarian president who has weaponized the federal government to punish rivals and silence dissent.