America turns 250 this year. If you were around for the bicentennial in 1976 you probably remember it like I do. I was an 11 year-old preteen obsessed with presidents but not yet old enough to understand the experiment called democracy I was celebrating.
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I remember red, white and blue everywhere. In our neighborhood, every porch or window had a flag. People proudly, and without partisanship, displayed them. I collected ‘76 decals and bumper stickers, the round ones, and stuck them on the wall above my bed, and on my bike.
I can recall having red, white and blue spokecards clipped to my spokes that clicked as I pedaled. My family and our neighbors all gathered at North Park in the North Hills of Pittsburgh for a barbecue and watched a giant fireworks display.
To a young, patriotic boy like me, the bicentennial was a big deal. That’s why I can vividly recall it. There’s that, and the fact that I have an unmatched memory. The pride was everywhere, and it didn’t belong to anyone in particular. It belonged to all of us.
A few weeks ago I was pulling out of my garage. The car in front of me had two enormous American flags hanging out of the back windows. And the first thought that popped into my head, before I could stop it, was, “A Trump supporter.”
That’s what I thought. Not “there’s a patriot.” Not “there’s someone who loves this country.” Just there’s a Trump supporter. And it was then I realized this is nothing at all like 1976.
How did that happen? How did I get to a place where seeing my own flag makes me flinch instead of swell with pride? Because somewhere along the way, Donald Trump hijacked it. He and his movement wrapped themselves in the flag so completely that now, in most cases, you can’t see one without a Trump flag flying right next to it.
It really makes you sick. Trump banners have zero place next to an American flag. This is a fool who has spent a decade attacking the pillars of democracy, the courts, the press, the peaceful transfer of power, the very idea of a fair election, and on and on and on.
Somehow, he has made himself the face of the flag that’s supposed to represent all of us.
But you know what? He hasn’t won, and he never will.
Trump is not forever. MAGA is not forever. Movements like this fizzle out, and history is not on their side. He is a speed bump in the long race of American democracy, not the finish line. I believed that at 11 years old without fully understanding why, and I believe it now with 250 years of evidence behind me.
Look at what he’s turned this birthday into. He’s tried to shoehorn himself into America’s 250th on the National Mall, and by every account, it’s been a horrific mess. Thin to non-exist crowds, logistical failures, a “state fair” built around one man instead of a country’s vivid history.
He’ll give his “big speech” on July 4th. It will be the meandering slop of a deranged man. He said there will be the biggest fireworks ever. Well, if it’s anything like his state fair on the National Mall, they will be ho-hum.
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But none of it matters. And do you know why? It’s because democracy was never supposed to live on the National Mall at some cockamanie state fair. It lives on our blocks. In our neighborhoods. In the way people wave from a porch ladened with flags, the way my neighbors did in 1976, simply because we were all Americans together.
So I’m going to ignore him for one day, even though my job as a journalist is to keep tabs on him. And all of us should ignore him too.
He’s like a deadly cancer, spreading everywhere. He is in every headline, every breaking news alert, every conversation, every single day of our lives. Let him have those days. Not this one.
And, not while he’s reportedly pocketed roughly $2 billion during his second term, and now flies around on a luxury jet gifted by Qatar, all while pretending to preside over America’s birthday.
He’s about as patriotic as Vladimir Putin, and that comparison would actually make him happy, so there’s your proof about how “American” he is.
Fly your flag this Fourth of July. Fly it proudly, and don’t let him have it. Enjoy your friends, your family, your neighbors, because we are still, despite everything, a democracy. It is on us, not him, to make sure there’s a 251st birthday, and a 252nd, and a 253rd.
Go back to the Constitution. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. *Happiness.* Go find that word in the Magna Carta, or in the founding documents of almost any other nation on earth. You won’t.
We promised something bigger, and that’s the right to chase joy. That is what makes this country different, and it is exactly what Donald Trump has spent years trying to steal from us – joy – piece by piece, grift by grift, insult by insult, lie by lie.
The best way to fight back is simple. Be happy anyway. Be proud anyway. Laugh about it all.
So this Fourth of July, F-Trump for every way he’s tried to make us miserable. F-him for the liberty he’s chipped away at. F-him for the corrosion he’s dragged through our public life. F-him for all of it, because this day has nothing to do with him. He has contributed nothing to the survival of this democracy. We have. We’re the ones who will outlast him, who will keep chasing that life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness long after he’s a footnote.
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God bless America. Happy 250th birthday.
