America at 250: The Founding and the Uniform
Plus: What You Missed This Week From The Bulwark
Happy 4th of July! America is 250 today. However you choose to observe this occasion, have a safe and meaningful holiday. If you like today’s issue, you can share this newsletter with someone you think would value it.
Who Gets to Claim 1776?
MOST REPUBLICS FAIL by 300 years. For the United States to survive another 250, Americans must care about our revolutionary inheritance and what it actually means. This July Fourth offers an opportunity to encourage Americans to see themselves in the revolutionary story, to embrace the founding legacy, and to launch a civic renaissance.
We are the only nation in the world based on an idea. There was no roadmap to follow without the shared ethnic, racial, or religious base underpinning other nations. Americans have, from the beginning, debated what the idea means and squabbled over how best to pursue it.
July Fourth Is Different in Uniform
THE FIRST JULY FOURTH I SPENT IN UNIFORM was also the one when I began to understand the significance of the day.
On July 1, 1971, I reported to West Point as an 18-year-old fresh out of high school. Like every member of our class, I had been thrust into “Beast Barracks,” the term used to describe new cadet basic training, where civilian habits disappeared during the eight weeks of before the start of the grinding academic year in September. We woke before dawn, marched everywhere we went, and learned to salute, fire our rifles, make hospital corners on our beds, and survive the harassment and constant corrections issued by cadets in the classes ahead of us. Every day seemed longer than the last.
Trump’s Affront to the Founding
DONALD TRUMP IS PUTTING ON a celebration of something he doesn’t believe in. “America 250” is supposedly about the Declaration of Independence, the anniversary of which we celebrate on every July Fourth. But through his words and actions, Trump has turned his back on the principles enshrined in the Declaration.
The most famous of those principles is that “all men are created equal.” In 2004, Trump told Wolf Blitzer: “But the phrase that ‘all men are created equal’ is a wonderful phrase, but unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. All men are not created equal. Some are born with a genius and some are born without.”
🚨OVERTIME🚨
🎆Happy 4th, everyone!🎇 I trust some of you have been enjoying the World Cup like I have. I was sad to miss Friday’s excellent matches due to a road trip! Cabo Verde? Amazing stuff. Egypt in PKs? Mohamed Salah’s panenka? Brutal.
While I’ve been worried about my Cleveland Guardians… during World Cup Madness, these last few walk off wins against the White Sox have allayed my fears (for now.)
New here? Need some help? Try our new help center! It has quick answers to the questions we hear most often.
America in the World… Jay Nordlinger argues that America’s global example depends on living up to its founding ideals of liberty and equality.
Phil Edwards went to The Villages… A report from America’s baby boomer “utopia.”
How the coney… became a Cincinnati favorite. (Vince Guerrieri, Ohio Magazine)
📽️Staying in? Consider one of these Ken Burns films that our readers recommended in the Subscriber Chat led by Ali Pannoni this week: The American Revolution, The Civil War, The Statue of Liberty and Baseball. Here are some reader favorites:
Heidi: Baseball broke the impasse my husband and I found ourselves in when we couldn’t agree on a name for our second son. We settled on Satchel after rewatching that series in the summer of 2011.
Lori: I watched The Statue of Liberty by Ken Burns. I highly recommend it especially for our 250th birthday. It reminds us of what Lady Liberty represents. And for me that is “welcoming the immigrant.”
Kristina Woods: American Revolution seems appropriate, and you will, like me, learn so much. The Revolution was really our first civil war. But I love all of them.
Discover more Ken Burns films at PBS and see where many are streaming here.
Comment discussion prompt: What’s something out of the ordinary you’re doing this July for America 250 (if anything)?
—30—
I am part of pediatric heart surgery team that will do a heart transplant for a child later this afternoon.
I am grateful to live in a country that has the privilege of technology and expertise to give the gift of life.
A child born in some other countries would never have this second chance at life, and I am honored to be a part of this day for our patient and the family.
I was going to make a cynical or humorous comment, but after reading Carl Lincoln's inspiring one, I'm going to simply say, Thank you, and may we all know better times to come.