According to the Democrats, democracy and a woman’s right to choose, is on the ballot in November. According to Republicans, the economy and America’s strength, safety, and security is on the ballot. But there is another issue on the ballot which both sides may be underestimating. Which party will be entrusted to lead the celebration of America’s 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026?
What would such a celebration look like if it was controlled by the Democrats and President Joe Biden, versus by the Republicans and President Donald Trump? Most agree America is more divided than any time since at least the 1960s. The time after Sept. 11, 2001, when Americans came together, both selflessly helping their neighbor and displaying profound patriotism, flying flags on their homes and cars, seems like a very long time ago. Today, at least in my neighborhood in Los Angeles, less than one in five homes even flies a flag on July 4th! In L.A., American flags are less a display of patriotism and more an underground way of showing you are a Republican.
America needs a uniting event more than ever. What better than the 250th anniversary of our founding, the signing of the Declaration of Independence? In it we declared our independence from England, stated our vision that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” We won our independence, enshrined these rights into our Constitution, and not only do we remain independent with the same Constitution 250 years later, we are the richest and most powerful country in the world. Wow. That is certainly worth celebrating!
Our Bicentennial celebration in 1976 certainly seemed to bring the country together, at least from the eyes of an eight-year-old boy. It sure seemed like a big deal to me, and something I still remember vividly. I recall my t-shirt with a big “Spirit of ’76” logo. My third-grade teacher at my public school in Florida had the classroom decorated with American flags for the start of the 1975-1976 school year. My family moved to Philadelphia early in the school year. I remember my teacher asking me if we were moving because of the Bicentennial!
The 1970s were not exactly America’s glory days (at least certainly not as compared to the 1980s), but the country enjoyed quite a celebration. Planning by the Bicentennial Commission began ten years earlier. Special U.S. coins were minted, and stamps were printed in commemoration. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip attended the festivities in Washington D.C., where the queen was received by President Gerald Ford and the First Lady, and Philadelphia, where she presented a replica Liberty Bell. Johnny Cash was the grand marshal of the huge D.C. parade. Bicentennial concerts were played across the country. Elvis played in Tulsa, Elton played in Boston (performing his new song “Philadelphia Freedom”), and the Eagles played in Tampa. A copy of the Declaration printed on parchment paper was a common souvenir.
A “Semiquincentennial Commission” (unfortunately it does not roll off the tongue like “Bicentennial”) was also established ten years in advance of the 250th Anniversary. Its membership has been appointed by leaders of each party in the House and Senate. The president picks the chairperson. Thus, the person who is elected president in November will exercise a lot of control over what this celebration will look like. Further, the president will naturally be seen as the leader of the celebration. Both candidates are known for “waving the flag.” President Biden loves to exclaim, “We are Americans. There is nothing we cannot do!” Former President Trump begins each campaign rally with Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to Be an American,” hugs the flag, and is famous for saying, “Make America Great Again,” and “America First.”
But the anniversary requires a much deeper appreciation for what it is celebrating: America’s founding and its founders. And this just happens to be one of the fundamental issues dividing America today. Is our founding and our founders something to celebrate, or something to be ashamed of? The right tends to believe the former, while the new left progressives lean toward the latter. This sets up a battle over how to best recognize this major anniversary of that event.
That battle is already under way. One side is reflected by the New York Times’s 1619 Project, which provides a revisionist view of our history, takes a critical view of the Founding Fathers, and which has been embraced by progressives. It preaches that America’s founding should be regarded as 1619, when the first slave ships arrived, and that everything about our founding, including the Revolutionary War itself, should be viewed through the lens of a racist nation built upon the business of slavery.
On the other side is the 1776 Project, founded by President Trump to support “patriotic education.” It promotes a more traditional approach to teaching America’s founding, i.e. that our founders fought for individual freedom, boldly overthrew an oppressive monarchy, believed in concepts like “no taxation without representation” and “give me liberty or give me death,” and properly understood that government should be limited and local, thus putting in place checks and balances and arguing that “you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”
Will we get our act together, make our Founding Fathers proud, and show off America as the “shining city on the hill” of which Ronald Reagan spoke? The world, and more importantly, Americans, will be watching. The answer likely lies in who wins the presidency this November.
