America is in a “living battle for sovereignty and independence,” warns Glenn Beck.

And the stakes are higher than ever. With the Supreme Court’s recent rulings expanding presidential authority over independent agencies while reinforcing core constitutional protections like warrants, the battle lines are now clearly drawn.

“The agencies and the global pressures constantly pushing for more control and nuanced compromises in our founding liberties — it's got to stop,” Glenn declares.

“Independence was never meant to be negotiated down into something comfortable — never. Freedom is uncomfortable. Freedom was meant to be declared and defended without apology or amendment.”

Glenn recalls the letter John Adams penned on his deathbed to be read at America’s 50th Independence Day celebration. He wrote, “A memorable epoch in the annals of the human race, destined, in future history, to form the brightest or the blackest page, according to the use or abuse of those political institutions by which they shall, in time to come, be shaped by the human mind."

“It’s remarkable how the founders understood human nature and what could happen to the United States,” says Glenn.

Not even 100 years later, Woodrow Wilson — a president Glenn pulls no punches about hating — openly denounced the Declaration of Independence, criticizing people who he thought were stuck on the founding principles and resistant to embracing the “progressive” changes he wanted for America.

“[Wilson] completely inverts the Declaration. He says, ‘You don't have inherent rights until government puts you in a position to claim them,”’ says Glenn. “That is the heart of the disease called progressivism, which is now known as democratic socialism.”

Unlike Wilson, who desperately wanted America to distance itself from the Declaration of Independence, Abraham Lincoln revered it as timeless and paramount.

“He wrote that these truths are ‘applicable to all men at all times ... that today and in all coming days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling block to the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression,”’ Glenn quotes.

He warns, “We can't assume that this radical idea of freedom will always be embraced by Americans, because we're losing it now.”

“The fundamental principles of the Declaration are under attack from the left. They want you to forget about it, which makes it so important that you learn it.”

Glenn recalls an iconic John Adams moment from 1826. Shortly before his death, Adams requested that a toast be given in his honor on July 4. The words he wanted were simple: “Independence forever.”

When asked if he wanted to add anything else, Adams replied, “No, not a word.”

“That's the spirit we need today,” says Glenn.

To hear more, watch the video above.

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