Americans are exhausted. It’s our nation’s birthday, and we’re in no mood to celebrate.
Polling shows a nation divided. We have conflicting views of “freedom” and “democracy.” We cannot agree on the basic concepts of “patriotism,” and some people on the extreme left even consider patriotism a bad thing.
I know that my wife, my daughters, and I were fortunate to be born in the United States. I appreciate that, for now, I can raise my voice and argue for change. But, like most #NeverTrump voters, I’m not excited for this birthday.
“MAGA is excited, right?”
That’s complicated, like so many things in our civic lives.
MAGA thrives on a self-perception of being persecuted. If MAGA doesn’t see itself under attack, it doesn’t exist. Trump embodies this constant need to be on defense, while also claiming to be winning.
For the moderate middle (consider a left-leaning libertarian or a conservative Democrat), there’s no clear path forward. The Democrats have no power unless they win the House this fall. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll get lucky, and they will win the Senate by a seat or two. Yet, I do not want either party to have all three branches of government… ever.
I simply want Democrats to win so they can tear down Trump and MAGA. That’s not a vision for the future, I admit.
Our Founder feared parties… and formed parties almost instantly. Humanity at its most predictably hypocritical.
The semiquincentennial or sestercentennial, whatever you wish to call 250 years of the United States, has turned into yet another exhausting debate about what Donald J. Trump and his “Make America Great Again” movement represent. Do they represent what we have always been? Do they show us the future? Are they remnants of a fading past? There are a lot of perspectives on Trump and MAGA, and few of them are hopeful.
If Trump is what we have always been, then past efforts to lift our nation towards its better possibilities have been pointless. I cannot accept that, but I understand the dark, self-loathing perspective of American history.
If Trump is only a passing phase, a brief backlash against progress, many of us — myself included — fear how horrible this last gasp of the Old South could get. Yes, things could get worse.
The 2024 election was the result of Joe Biden’s hubris and a Democratic establishment afraid to challenge that hubris. Biden should have been a one-and-done president, the bridge he promised to be. And none of the “what should have” scenarios matter, because we have Trump now.
I want the year to end. I don’t care about the nation’s celebration. Each day is one day closer to the end of Trump’s term in office. My hope is that the lack of a charismatic successor will save the United States from worse, prolonged damage.
What depresses me most is that I remain a libertarian with fiscally conservative impulses. I regret having believed the Republican Party was worthy of any alliance with libertarianism. The House of Representatives under Trump has revealed that the GOP has no real ideological framework. There’s nothing underneath, just a reactionary conservatism that fears change, even change that we need as a nation.
The party once opposed to taxes now supports tariffs. The party that opposed government interference in the market now supports the administration buying or even taking shares in corporations. The party that claimed to seek a color-blind meritocracy now supports a white, male, Christian nationalism seeking to crush opportunities for all others.
I’m exhausted by a Supreme Court that ignores precedent. It’s not that some rulings must never be questioned, but this Court seems openly biased, not committed to any consistent philosophy. When I dreamed of a “conservative” Court, I imagined a Court that would do as little as necessary. This Court goes out of its way to implement social policies, under the guise of legislative control.
Our Constitution was not written with enough safeguards. Now, we have a cult of personality running the nation in reverse, towards a past that never was, recklessly destroying what doesn’t fit the cult’s false mythology.
We’re losing our nation. It’ll take a lot of time and energy to rebuild what has been destroyed so quickly. How can I celebrate that?
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