A few days into America’s 251st year, it is useful to examine what we have just witnessed.
We have seen our great nation celebrate its semiquincentennial, a word almost no one used, that means “half of 500 years.” It was far easier 50 years ago when “bicentennial” was a clean, easy reference to 200 years. If the birthdays ending in two zeroes will always carry an easier description, one hopes that by the time of America’s tricentennial, which Gen Z should be around for, we will not see another collection of people taking the opportunity to disparage the occasion and the nation itself.
That is precisely what we saw in the days leading up to this momentous American birthday, a spectacle offered by those who allowed their personal politics to infect what should have been a shared opportunity to show appreciation for a nation that welcomes all views and gives those views a full airing in landscapes from our elections to our individual First Amendment expressions.
This is one of many problems with today’s left. Tolerance of opposing views has been part of America’s history and our national discourse since our founding. It was also fairly recently a hallmark of liberalism. But that principle has been sacrificed on the altar of ideological hatred. Trump Derangement Syndrome has become a household word because it has turned smart people stupid, turned nice people mean, turned funny people unfunny. And now it has poisoned feeble minds against the country that has given them the very freedom to express whatever venom they please.
But it’s not enough. It became clear as July 4 approached that notable leftists were in no mood to celebrate the occasion for one reason: Trump is president.
But that is in a way many reasons. If Trump is president, that means millions of people voted for him—a majority in fact in 2024, evidence that their views have fallen out of favor, always a tough message to absorb. Add in our return to gender sanity, environmental sanity, a border that actually works, and restrictions on their cherished sacrament of abortion, and it is a series of bitter pills to swallow.
And yet, during the presidencies I did not vote for—Carter, Clinton, Obama and Biden—at no point did my love of country falter. In fact, there was something about enduring policies I opposed that rather energized my desire to turn things in a better direction, for the express reason that I wanted the best for the country, and felt that Democrat policies did not serve that goal.
Today’s Democrats are clearly energized to turn things back their way, but as they await the opportunity to do so in this year’s midterms and the presidential race of 2028, many have made clear that the burden of national leadership they disagree with makes it impossible for them to celebrate the wonder that is America.
To be sure, this is not all Democrats. Many are old enough to remember the era of JFK, and even as recently as Bill Clinton, when you could still find an American flag in a Democrat’s yard.
Both parties have experienced numerous losses in the last few decades, but Democrats did not used to spiral into distaste for America when their candidates lost. The Reagan-Bush era spelled twelve years in the desert for liberals at the presidential level, but the Democrats of the ‘80s and early ‘90s did not take to TV talk shows to share their inability to celebrate the Fourth of July. Local businesses did not proudly announce their petulant tantrums proudly vocalizing their choice to disparage the nation because their views did not hold sway at the ballot box.
The Democrats of 35 years ago buckled down, fashioned a message and sent Clinton out to beat a sitting president. The Democrats of today have measurable energy, but it is expended in endless exercises of Trump hatred, lurches toward socialism and wanton smearing of America. One wonders if this is the recipe for the midterm successes history suggests they should enjoy later this year.
The good news for the country is that our national fabric can withstand the malice of the left’s situational derision. The good news for conservatives is that Democrat convulsions are evidence of the successes and impact of the Trump era. Does anyone think they would be melting down during a timid Mitt Romney presidency?
I am already in the process of forgetting the whining and hand-wringing of the tortured voices who could not prod themselves to happiness, or at least some grudging appreciation, as America turned 250. But I will always remember the flags, the flyovers and the fireworks that heralded a celebration for the teeming majorities who chose to take part.
The timing was additionally poetic. As some Americans blessed enough to live here spewed loathing for America, delighted crowds of visiting World Cup fans were sharing eye-opening epiphanies of how misled they were by anti-U.S. bias in their own countries.
They will return to their homelands smarter and more appreciative of the world’s greatest nation. One wonders if American liberals will choose to open themselves to that truth.
Mark Davis is a talk show host for Salem Media: 660amtheanswer.com. X: @markdavis
The views and opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of The Dallas Express, its editors, or its staff.
