Party Like It’s 1776
At the risk of being labeled a Debbie Downer, I am going to start this week’s TRUTH: In 1000 Words or Less with what some will find to be a controversial perspective that soft-pedals the upcoming celebration of America’s 250th birthday. Oh, I know all of you want to scream at me right now and tell me to shut the hell up so that we can all simply enjoy a big damn party. God knows we need that right about now. But the fact is that Freedom 250, as the liar-in-chief is dubbing it, should never happen as it represents a misguided attempt to divert from the very real issues that currently face our troubled nation.
For starters, 2026 is NOT the 250 year anniversary of our nation’s founding. While I generally eschew engaging in historical semantics, lest I alienate every last personal contact I have ever had, I feel the need to point out that 1776 was the year of the Declaration of Independence. For those of you who stared blankly out the window while your Middle School history teacher ranted about the founding documents of our nation’s inception, the Declaration of Independence was a firmly-worded revocation of our relationship with England founded on the philosophical political underpinnings of John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. But the moment you decide to break up with your previous girlfriend does not also represent the anniversary date for your subsequent relationship, unless, of course, your name is Nick Cannon. To begin with, just declaring our independence did not inherently make it so just as my high school senior can say all they want that they are an adult, but I’m not buying that nonsense until they aren’t living in my house and asking when dinner is going to be ready. But even after we earned our independence from England through the Revolutionary War, we were not a nation. You know the King George song in Hamilton where he sings “What comes next?” Well, we spent the next decade as nothing more than a loose affiliation of states as we pondered what type of federal government we wanted, if we wanted one at all. No, the United States, as we know it today, came into existence in 1789 when the Constitution was ratified by the ninth state of New Hampshire and went into effect. Call me pedantic, but we don’t celebrate your birthday on the day of your conception. Why then are we doing this with our country?
Ok, peevish historical rants aside, it really feels unhealthy to be celebrating America at this point in time, like a toxic relationship that should have ended years before. I recognize that we could use a unifying moment at this juncture in our nation’s history, allowing us to rally around the principles and values that bind us all together. Unfortunately, we currently have a president who stands in direct opposition to the very values that we should honoring as the bedrock of the American ideal.
At the heart of the Great American experiment lies a belief in democratic principles, a belief that should usurp allegiance to party, policy, or faith. Before we are Republicans or Christians or gun owners, we should be Americans, a collective of citizens who live and die by the principles of representative government and the rule of law. But Trump flies in the face of just that. This ass-hat stormed out of a recent interview with NBC reporter Kristen Welker because she had the temerity to ask Trump for evidence as he spouted off incoherently about the 2020 election being “rigged”. In case our collective amnesia has caused you to forget, he led an insurrection on the United States Capitol, jeopardizing the long-honored principles of a peaceful transition of power that this country has taken for granted as an understood norm for more than two centuries. Knowing that they have a snowball’s chance in hell of retaining a majority in both houses of Congress without finding a way to manipulate the foundations of representative elections, he has openly demanded gerrymandering states where Republicans have a territorial advantage in order to eliminate or reduce Democratic-leaning districts, and his Republican cronies have proved only too willing to acquiesce to the notion of silencing the political voices of millions. And of course, we have the recent gutting of the Voting Rights Act and the horrifying potential of the SAVE Act, both of which are specifically intended to disenfranchise millions of American voters.
Assuming you had at least moments of paying attention during that Middle School History class we mentioned earlier, you probably recall something about our founding fathers wanting to distance themselves from anything remotely representing an authoritarian monarchy. I mean, they fought a war over that shit. But here comes Trump perpetually acting like a would-be dictator, the likes of which must have the founding fathers rolling angrily in their graves. Be it hollowing out independent agencies, politicizing the civil service, avoiding Congressional approval for a prolonged war in the Middle East, engaging in unilateral policy directives or just remodeling the White House without consulting Congress, Trump consistently usurps his presidential authority like a would-be monarch in waiting.
And that impulse has led directly into his placing himself at the center of what should be a celebration of our nation and the principles it was founded on. As plans have been released, this event has all the markings of an autocratic regime. In fact, Trump has turned this whole ugly escapade into something more akin to a MAGA rally than a giant party for America. From Indy Car racing to UFC fights on the South lawn, this whole fiasco looks more like a gaudy reality TV series than a dignified civic jubilee.
But maybe that really does represent the America we have developed into- the kind of willfully ignorant, morally hijacked theater of the absurd we have somehow embraced but should be roundly ashamed of. Just don’t ask me to celebrate the disgrace we have become.
Steven Craig is the author of the best-selling novel WAITING FOR TODAY, as well as numerous published poems, short stories, and dramatic works. Read his blog TRUTH: in 1000 Words or Less every THURSDAY at www.waitingfortoday.com
