'America 250' Shouldn't Be About Donald Trump, But Some People Can't Get Past Him

It was supposed to be an all-American, red, white, and blue, patriotic extravaganza. Running from June 25 to July 10, the idea for "The Great American State Fair" was to give each of the 50 states 600 feet on the National Mall to display what makes their state special: food, industry, exhibits on famous people born there, and a chance to show their pride in who they are and what they've accomplished.

Seven states have opted out of participating. An event that comes along once in a lifetime is getting a pass by Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon, and Washington, because the federal government isn't picking up the entire tab, or so they say. The Feds are paying for each state's pavilion, but fleshing out the exhibits and staffing the booths is left to the states.

Please note that of the seven states, only one — North Carolina — isn't a haven of deep blue governance. Could it possibly be that there's another, less mundane reason for the states' refusal to participate?

If the reason really was economic, any first-year accounting student could shuffle money around and come up with enough to cover expenses to participate in the fair. The cost of transport has been a major sticking point. Internal state communications revealed that Oregon officials balked at a $70,000 expense just for shipping their pavilion materials and exhibits to the National Mall.

The State of Oregon's published budget is $138.9 billion, and they have the moxie to claim they can't come up with $70,000 to ship their exhibits to D.C.? North Carolina is bitching about the $100,000 total cost of properly setting up, decorating, and managing a pavilion in Washington, D.C. Perhaps paying for a few fewer drag shows in libraries for kids would help defray the "exorbitant" costs.

In truth, the states are refusing to participate because… Trump. Blue state Democrats can't get past their hysterical Trump hatred to participate in the most important patriotic event of our lifetimes.

"At least one church in the wealthy enclave of Nantucket, so outraged by the current president, has already decided to skip its long-standing tradition of reading America’s founding documents and will instead use the day to meditate on the perils of 'whiteness,'" reports The Free Press.

Such is America heading into the second quarter of the 21st century.

The American left’s relationship with patriotism has long been uneasy. Despite their great political successes this century, such as the election and reelection of the country’s first black president in Barack Obama, Democrats are far less likely to express pride in this country than Republicans. There is a pervasive sense among progressives that there is nothing particularly special about this country or, at the very least, that it has not lived up to its promise.
Even in 2022, when Trump looked vanquished by history and liberals were all in on supporting Ukraine against Vladimir Putin, a majority of Democrats (52 percent) said they would leave the United States if Russia invaded, versus 40 percent who would stay and fight. Among Republicans, according to the same Quinnipiac survey, 68 percent would fight, while only 25 percent would not.

Democrats have become besotted with race, class, and gender to the exclusion of any reasonable and rational critique of America. The notion that America "has not lived up to its promise" isn't the point. It's that America has always been the "Promise of Joy," as Allen Drury wrote in the 1970s. Not the absolute certainty of guaranteed outcomes. Only the "promise" that we are capable of governing ourselves and making life better for all.

America's 250th birthday is a cause for celebration, even if you can't stand Donald Trump and think he's out to destroy democracy, or re-enslave black people, or murder transgender people. Getting past the puny, day-to-day political spats and seeing the entire grand panorama of what we have to celebrate shouldn't be that hard for thinking people.

The promise of America is still alive, regardless of who is president. That's what 250 years of liberty should have taught us. Instead, engaging in the normal tit-for-tat political tug of war, "owning the left" or "bashing the right," is sadly going to make this Independence Day a reminder of what divides us rather than what brings us together.

Editor's Note: The Democrat Party has never been less popular as voters reject its globalist agenda.

Help us continue exposing Democrats' plans to lead America down a dangerous path. Join PJ Media VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.