Like most older Americans, I imagine, our nation’s forever unfolding history came to me initially from school books. See, there was this revolution and this president and then this one, etc. Those recitations were followed by university readings, and then, in adulthood, the freedom to follow my own curiosity.
The most exciting history lessons I read came from “The Americans” trilogy by Daniel Boorstin. It’s a fascinating, detailed social history, not about the politics but how the ideas, doings, and seemingly ordinary institutions and lives of some two million colonists collectively over time forged a raw, wild farmland into an industrial powerhouse and a superpower of some 341 million.
I say older Americans because it seems more recent generations do not study our country’s rich history in much detail. They think life in this special place began with them. Anything they don’t know doesn’t matter. And everything that happens now is brand-new.
Of course, this is an intellectual shame. Whether they were educated in our failing public school systems or newcomers from foreign lands, their little minds remain stunted by a lack of historical realities.
The most glaring recent example of that ignorance came in a recent video clip of Ilhan Omar, who arrived from Somalia in 1995 and entered the House of Representatives in 2019 representing Minnesota’s scandal-plagued Fifth District. In the clip, she’s talking about immigration and refers to “World War Eleven.”
That’s what you get from reading notes by rote and not knowing instinctively that “World War II” is not 11. Gasps tipped her to the gaffe.
Somehow, our nation will survive that one. As it will survive the recent rash of elections sending closet communists to join Omar in the House.
But collectively such stupidities add up, even the intentional ones designed to promote perverted politics.
We’ve seen too much of this occurring around the country’s remarkable 250th anniversary that we are so gloriously marking these days. The faux naivete that a president, any president, would not seek to shape such historic celebrations.
Especially a president named Donald J. Trump, a former New Yorker and real estate developer. Perhaps my favorite anecdote is 1986 when the future president had had enough of New York’s failed six-year, multi-million repair effort to bring Central Park’s Wollman Skating Rink back to life.
Not known as a figure skater, the man took over that project and in four months had the rink open again under budget.
As president last year, Trump successfully organized a massive military parade in DC to mark the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary.
At heart, Trump’s a showman, which became a more important element of politics when television happened. Ask NBC about his 14-year success as host of “The Apprentice” franchise.
So, spare me the fake shock and outrage that this man, who seems to thrive on but five hours of sleep, would turn the usual boring government anniversary celebration into a massive, two-week observation of the United States’ first 250 years.
With an old-fashioned state fair on the National Mall, a holiday afternoon literally full of airplane flyovers, and 45 minutes of fireworks with more than 800,000 colorful explosions.
The temporary mall fairgrounds were designed for each state to be represented.
Unfortunately, 10 states declined to participate. As it happens, nine of those states have Democrat governors, including Pennsylvania, where the Declaration of Independence was signed. Remember that absence in 2028 when Gov, Josh Shapiro seeks to succeed Trump in the White House.
According to the New York Times, among others, “the country is deeply polarized” and “several (states) led by Democratic governors opt(ed) out because they were uneasy about the event’s partisanship.”
The actual reason, of course, is TDS, which means the real perceived partisanship is theirs. Yes, Trump is indomitable and larger than life in politics. That’s for sure. And for more than 10 years through all kinds of means, both standard and nefarious, Democrats have proven incapable of defeating him, let alone offering a realistic, coherent alternative.
But wouldn’t you think the anniversary of two-and-a-half centuries of our country’s amazing existence – including 198 years of the Democrat Party’s existence — might be reason to act like a grownup and join the celebration, if only for their own image and reputation? That’s how much they dislike this man.
I mean, even Paris and Tokyo did big displays of celebration and congratulations.
Trump "doesn't own the country," Bill Maher points out; he's just a "temporary caretaker." To boycott the patriotic holiday because you dislike the president is equivalent to “cutting off your nose to spite your face.”
We saw Kamala Harris pause her wooing of Democrat Socialists to bemoan "European explorers (who) ushered in a wave of devastation, vioIence, stealing land, and diseases."
Can you imagine how grim Independence Day would have been if she were commander in chief? Reminds me of Jimmy Carter's complaint about America being in a deep "malaise." Oh, look! They're both Democrats.
They're always so negative, angry. Everything is somehow wrong to them.
I don’t agree with everything our remarkable president does or utters. The same goes for me for any president. Probably you too.
You bet if Barack Obama were president now, the nation’s historic 250th anniversary would be muted to a minimum, if not ignored. He’s the man, raised in a Muslim home in Indonesia, whom Americans placed their trust in as their first black president.
That man, who vowed to impose a “radical transformation” on us, then went on a global tour to apologize profusely to the world for our trusting country.
And that Obama still declines to place a hand over his heart during the National Anthem.
But, by golly, this July Fourth is one historically unique occasion in our national story. What I remember about the bicentennial 50 years ago was red, white, and blue mailboxes and a couple hundred masted ships in New York harbor.
Gerald Ford, a Republican, presided over that anniversary. Then came Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, who moaned about our national malaise and lack of spirit.
Carter was followed by Ronald Reagan. Oh, look! Reagan was a Republican too. My friend Don Surber has written:
Reagan brought it back with a smile, sharp wit, and an optimism worthy of our Founding fathers. He replaced Carter’s mourning with Morning in America.
No one remembers political ads from as long ago as last night, right? But Morning in America? Many of us remember that one, even after 42 years?
Reagan won 49 states that year, a pretty good indication of national agreement. (The outlier was Minnesota, home to the other nominee, Walter Mondale.)
Trump’s second White House reign seems more like another morning in America to me, coming after the Biden nightmare. Most Americans breathed a huge sigh of relief when Jill Biden gave up her husband’s presidency and ended that nightmare.
The Times and many media like to talk about how polarized the country is. That actually reveals how little they know or understand our history. A poll by my friends at Issues & Insights found about three-quarters of Americans feel proud to be Americans.
And witness the uniform warmth that World Cup visitors are encountering across the land. They see us better than we see ourselves.
We’ve always been polarized, even from before the start. Many colonial residents did not want independence. Some 60,000 fled the Revolution, many overseas or to British North America, which became Canada.
Come to think of it, some still are fleeing, at least celebrities who can afford it. Richard Gere, Rosie O’Donnell, Eva Longoria, Jeff Daniels, Ellen DeGeneres have all departed. George Clooney now is seeking to become a citoyen of France.
Although we celebrate July Fourth, the original process took much longer. On June 7, 1776, Virginia’s Richard Lee introduced a resolution to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia declaring the British colonies free and independent.
However, it then took 25 days of thinking, arguing, and discussing to bring the issue to a vote. Some thought reconciliation with Britain remained possible. Not until July 2 did the Congress vote to accept the freedom resolution, making independence official.
The vote was not unanimous, however. Guess which colony abstained. (New York, of course.)
The Congress then took up the Declaration of Independence that Thomas Jefferson had been quilling, you know, just in case.
That took another two whole days of debating, arguing, and grumbling to agree on the Declaration's final text. During that time, the members cut out about a quarter of Jefferson’s work and discussed, argued, and compromised on 39 other changes. No record of how Tom felt about the editing.
So, that’s why we celebrate July Fourth, actually two days after making official the split with Britain. The Declaration's first public reading was July 7th. And they didn’t start signing the parchment until the next month.
Then came seven more long years of war with an estimated 25,000 Army and militia deaths, fully three-quarters of them from disease and captivity, not combat.
As Teddy Roosevelt wrote even before inheriting the presidency:
A nation’s greatness lies in its possibility of achievement in the present, and nothing helps it more than the consciousness of achievement in the past.
