“I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.”
– ABRAHAM LINCOLN
This 4th of July was supposed to be special. Anyone old enough to remember the proud pomp and fanfare of our nation’s 200th birthday recalls a holiday of huge DC crowds and the unprecedented good feelings that coast-to-coast unity engendered.
The other day an old high school friend of mine posted a great picture on Facebook of Independence Day on the National Mall circa 1976. The crowd extended as far as the eye could see, with broad smiles on virtually every face you looked at. Nobody seemed to be thinking about anything other than the good time they were having on a day every American was happy to celebrate.
Of course, that doesn’t mean things were hunky dory in the U.S. at the time. We were just two years removed from the trauma of Vietnam. Issues stemming from integration, like bussing to schools, were creating battlegrounds in a number of communities. The first wave of economic pain tied to the coming end of our dominance in global trade and manufacturing was beginning an oxidation process of what would become the Rust Belt. Inflation was high, exceeding wage growth. Finally, the POTUS at the time had replaced the first one ever to resign his office following the ugliest White House scandal in American history.
But looking at the photo, none of that seemed to matter. There appeared a collective feeling that whatever challenges we faced, whatever our nation’s failures, at the very least our country’s mission statement, the faithful adherence to the Constitution, would protect what we all agreed was most precious… the rule of law and our basic freedoms it codified, and an electoral process that was the envy of the world. The hundreds of thousands of smiles in that picture seemed to express mass confidence in such reassurance.
It gets no more surreal than the Fox News coverage over the last several days of the Trump-centered Great American State Fair on the National Mall. Fox decided to go all in promoting and covering the event, declaring it a sparkling exhibition of American “heritage and military grit.” Trouble is that in addition to the mass exodus of the performers originally scheduled on the entertainment list, along with the refusal of up to 11 states to participate, nobody has showed up.
Fox News anchors on the ground have been sticking to a talk track that not only ignores that development, but actually pretends it isn’t true. Despite live camera footage of entirely empty Mall expanses, the Fox commentators are cheerfully reporting how “thousands of Americans are here celebrating our heritage.” It’s a good bet that even the North Korean state propaganda services would be loath to broadcast such Orwellian absurdity.
As for national unity on America’s 250th birthday week, that’s never been a Trump priority. Hastily erecting a model of the golden arch Trump means to build in megalomanical homage to himself, as well as deploying packs of overheated national guard, park police and even ICE personnel to confirm his incessant proclamations that DC “has almost no crime anymore,” are foremost on the agenda. Concepts like community and national unity have “woke” written all over them. Keep the messaging where Trump always wants it… validating his grievances.
This week his Sheriff of Nottingham, United States Attorney for DC Janine Pirro, has been doing her share in that regard. She is prosecuting a 67-year old former US Olympian “to the fullest extent of the law” for the felony of reaching in and picking out a floating example of the sub-shoddy job the no-bid award of the Reflecting Pool reclamation project resulted in.
JJ Cafaro, is the Mar A Lago buddy of Trump who received the government contract. The Interior Department justified skirting procurement rules and pinpointing Cafaro’s company, Greenwater Solutions, by citing the “unusual and compelling urgency of the Reflecting Pool project.”
Cafaro, who bears a striking resemblance to Oliver Hardy of Laurel and Hardy fame, pleaded guilty back in 2000 to trying to bribe disgraced Ohio Congessman James Traficant and promptly turned federal stoolie in return for a reduced sentence. Ten years later he pleaded guilty again to campaign finance violations. He has offered little in the way of public comment concerning the debacle.
The vandal Pirro wants to keep off the streets is David Hearn, once an Olympic Canoeist. Pirro somehow got him indicted on Wednesday. Those who didn’t believe the old adage that a grand jury “can indict a ham sandwich” should now reconsider. Pirro contends the senior citizen “forcefully and violently” pulled up the blue liner installed just weeks before. There is “tremendous evidence,” assured Pirro, to convict the nefarious Hearn of his “deliberate act.” The former Olympian could receive up to 10 years in prison.
Meanwhile, perhaps the almighty has decided to express some dismay with our current trajectory. Record heat has permeated the entire mid-Atlantic region. Temperatures as high as 105 were reported in DC this week. It was so hot Friday, The Great American State Fair was forced to cancel activities for the afternoon. That offered small comfort to fully uniformed personnel, who appeared ready to engage in a firefight, and whose number just about equaled the attendees, as they baked mercilessly under the unforgiving sun.
The high for our 250th Independence Day is forecasted at a health-threatening 104 degrees. Trump, who certainly will be wearing that ridiculous blue suit and wing tips when he enters the fires of his eternity, was unfazed by the forecast. “It’s going to be approximately 107 degrees out. And I’m going to go and make a really long speech just to show that I can do anything.” Maybe he’s practicing for this Christmas. When he’ll be shimmying down Whoville chimneys to steal the gifts the ungrateful brats don’t deserve.
Whether just recently raising the flag of independence and national sovereignty, or marking a quarter millennium of existence, a nation is judged on its leadership and the process for selecting it. On our nation’s 250th birthday we are addled by a President who incited the storming of our Capital after he lost his bid for reelection in 2020, and now refuses to sign any legislation until Congress passes the Save America Act, MAGA-created sedition that everybody else agrees will wreak havoc on our electoral process.
Trump has declared any other governing priority a “yawn.” That includes a recent bipartisan housing package that offers some dim hope of across-the-aisle cooperation. Indeed, nothing comes out of this White House that doesn’t seek to discredit the U.S. electoral system and continue laying the groundwork for refusing to turn over power if the GOP is repudiated this November.
Fifty years after our Bicentennial, when so many came together as one to celebrate the foundations that allowed our country to weather its mistakes while pursuing its better angels, we face the specter of national jubilation hijacked by those actively moving against the very freedoms worth recognizing. What’s left is totalitarian grift, enjoyed only by those not included on an enemies list that grows by the hour. Enjoy the fireworks. BC