The 250th Celebration Seems More Muted And Less Buoyant Than The Bicentennial

 

This past Memorial Day, as we approached our 250th anniversary of being a nation, feels and looks much different than it did 50 years ago. In the lead up to the Bicentennial, red, white, and blue was everywhere. Every brewery and soft drink manufacturer had special edition bicentennial cans. Parades were ubiquitous, with seemingly every third person dressed up as Uncle Sam. Even shortly after coming out of a war which we did not win, there was far more unity in the nation in 1976 than there is in 2026. Because there was far more homogeneity and far less diversity. There were far more openly patriotic and celebratory events and observations taking place than there are today.  The vast majority of us were Christian, and untroubled by that fact. There were not 40 or 50 million foreign immigrants, mostly illegal, in the nation, many of whom hate us, and most of whom are here to scam us or simply to benefit from our misplaced largess. So, when we memorialize those who for so long sacrificed to secure and protect our freedoms and our inherent, alienable rights granted by our creator, let us also memorialize the country that once was. A country that was once proud, confident-- and relatively united, safe, and still possessed of the ethics and mores to allow for equal justice under the rule of law and a successfully functioning, free representative Republic.

Many of those manners and mores have fallen away. Most of our leaders are corrupt. A.I., though it has its benefits, is likely to further reduce individuals’ capacity to do things on their own. That’s the best-case scenario. The worst is that it eventually renders us moot—or decides it no longer needs us.

And then there is the fact that, as Mark Steyn is wont to say, demography is destiny. We are writing ourselves out of our own story. May God help us.

As Ben Franklin noted, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” We are—tragically—becoming ever more corrupt. The masters—our masters-- are always happy to oblige.

“Happy Memorial Day?”

But maybe memorial days are not supposed to be happy. Perhaps we are supposed to recognize the sacrifice that so many others endured and humbly vow to use that recognition-- and the memory of who we were-- to chart our way in the future. It is yet possible to see a path back to that nation, to that shining city on a hill. But it’s overgrown……and I just don't believe that we will choose to take it.

I pray that I am wrong.

Let’s remember. And pray. Whether some know it or not, we are engaged in a great social and cultural war, testing whether this nation-- or any nation so conceived and so dedicated-- can long endure.