Below 
is my column in The Hill on our 250th Anniversary. Most of us will be celebrating with fireworks and cookouts today. Yet, some will celebrate not with fanfare but fury today. Rep. Al Green was asked whether he was proud to be an American on this holiday on the steps of the Capitol. He responded, “I am very proud to tell you that impeachment is an option to remove a reckless, ruthless, lawless president. I’m proud that it exists.” Well, at least he is celebrating something. For the rest of us, we celebrate a unique Republic that has brought prosperity and freedom to generations of Americans. Happy Fourth of July to all of the patriots across our political spectrum. E pluribus unum.
Here is the column:
Across the country today, Americans are celebrating a common article of faith: the belief that a free people can govern themselves under rights given to them not by the government but by their creator.
Two hundred fifty years ago, the Republic was founded as the first major Enlightenment Revolution. The Enlightenment had started roughly 100 years earlier. Many in Europe had long argued for a society based on the writings of figures like John Locke. But it would happen thousands of miles away, among a collection of colonies where a people came together and put those principles to the test. They believed that they were entitled to rights of free speech, free exercise, and property as human beings, not as subjects.
We became the fascination of Europe among writers and intellectuals who could not understand how the world’s first Enlightenment Revolution could be brought about by a people with little connection to each other or the land; with no calcified class structure or fixed institutions.
It led one Frenchman, who wrote under the name John Hector St. John, to ask, “What then is the American, this new man?”
In my book, Rage and the Republic, I ask whether we can answer that question today. Who were we then, and who are we now?
In 1776, two revolutions were developing in America and in France. One would become the world’s oldest and most successful republic The other, in France, would become “the Terror,” in which tens of thousands would die on guillotines and in the streets.
The true miracle of Philadelphia was the creation of a system that could harness the self-destructive powers of a democracy. The framers, and particularly James Madison, would create a constitutional system that forced moderation and compromise through checks and balances.
Many wanted a less restrained democratic system, but the Framers understood that such systems stretching back to ancient Athens had become little more than what Benjamin Rush called a “mobocracy.”
In France, such voices prevailed. They unleashed a blood-letting that would ultimately even devour the Jacobins themselves. They first turned on the wealth and aristocrats, then on the priests and then each other. It would lead French journalist Jacques Mallet du Pan to write that “like Saturn, the Revolution devours its children.”
Those voices are with us today. Many, including Democratic and socialist leaders, are denouncing the Declaration and the Constitution as tools of repression.
This week, various Democrats went public to call for radical revolutionary changes or criticize our founding. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani used an occasion with newly admitted citizens to trash the country, oligarchs, ICE, and our “arena of supremacy.”
Socialist Mamdani described a virtual hellscape of a country run by “oligarchs who buy elections” as “children go to sleep hungry.” He added, “We see monopolies that dominate every industry, and oligarchs who buy elections. We see masked agents terrorizing our streets, eating food cooked by our undocumented neighbors before spiriting them away in unmarked vans.”
Mamdani mocked the narrative of the republic, telling the new citizens that “the irony is that the story of America has so often been written by those who were told by others with power and influence and wealth that they were anything but exceptional.”
Others joined the celebrations with their own condemnations. Pennsylvania socialist Chris Rabb, the Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District, has joined the chorus of critics.
Speaking at “America at 250 — Trump Fascism, Historical Erasure, and the Battle Over Truth” in Philadelphia, the unopposed Rabb lashed out at a country built on “stolen land and stolen labor.” He also mocked the “lofty” “screeds” that “were notoriously catering to a performative aspect of collective genius that purposely erased indigenous and black peoples.” He denounced this country as based on harmful “myths” supporting white supremacy and fascism: “Fascism is not new. These systems of harm are built into the very fabric of this nation.”
Others, such as former MSNBC host Joy Reid, declared that black Americans don’t celebrate the Fourth.
Reid dismissed celebrating what she called “MAGA America” which she described as “sad, pathetic, boring.”
Others, like Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), used the anniversary to praise Cuba as the true model of success (something Mamdani had also done in his inaugural address).
Blue states — Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Pennsylvania—declined to participate in the 250th anniversary celebrations on the Mall.
In Massachusetts, a historic church ended its long-standing celebration of the Fourth of July to focus on the “on-going process within the congregation to better understand our own whiteness.”
This is the home of John Adams and other patriots. Adams wrote his wife Abigail that this day would be “celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from end of this continent to the other from this time forward forever more.”
We are seeing not a constitutional crisis but a crisis of faith. Polls show that fewer than half of Democrats are now proud to be Americans.
For many of us, this day remains, as Adams described it, that day of deliverance. These are revolutionary times, but we remain a revolutionary people who believe that free speech and other rights belong to us as human beings. Our belief in individual rights and the free market built the greatest engine of prosperity and freedom in the history of the world.
Many of these critics cite our flaws, including slavery, in a country based on inalienable rights. But what the framers gave us was a system that allows an imperfect people to form a “more perfect union.”
It was here that citizens could pursue their own manifest destiny. It is here that a black minister could speak on our National Mall about his unrealized dream and galvanize a nation to fight for the civil rights of every American.
It is here that an African American, and the child of a Kenyan, could become president.
It is here that the son of Vietnamese immigrants could rise this year to be Navy Secretary.
It is here that a black child growing up in a home with a dirt floor and no plumbing could become one of the longest-serving justices of the Supreme Court.
It is here that a people could survive economic meltdowns, global wars, and natural disasters, based on the simple belief that we share a common article of faith: “E pluribus unum” — “out of many, one.”
“What, then, is this American?” Look around you.
Kash Patel (FBI Director) should read the book “Disrupt, Discredit and Divide” by former FBI Counter-Terrorism agent Michael German.
If Patel wants to reverse his current path of blunders and be the best FBI Director of the 21st Century, he should read this book.
The culture of any agency originated from top management. The FBI has been a broken agency since J. Edgar Hoover, Patel has an opportunity to transform the FBI into an agency loyal to the American oath of office.
In former FBI agent German’s book, he instructs how to focus on real threats and stop violating the legal First Amendment rights of Americans.
Years ago I asked FBI Director Mueller for an official apology for his role in Bush’s illegal blacklisting program. Mueller’s secretary refused to provide her real name and wouldn’t even give me her employee ID number. Still waiting on that apology Mr. Patel.
In 2026 and several decades before, about 50% of the U.S. population are women (about 160 million Americans). On July 4, 1776 women had no voting rights and essentially expected to be barefoot & pregnant. Not allowed to do jobs men did.
Most calendars don’t even mention August 19, 1920 when women gained their independence and there is no celebration as big as July 4 which only celebrates 50% of the American population (men).
In 1920, women only gained voting rights. It would be several decades later before women were allowed to have bank accounts and buy homes without permission from their husbands (or other men if single). It was fairly recent before women were allowed to serve in combat and special forces in the American military.
Shouldn’t the biggest celebration be on August 19 instead of July 4?
Do you prefer historic propaganda over truth?
Based on truth, shouldn’t the biggest Independence Day celebration be on August 19 celebrating when women gained the right to vote?
July 4, 1776 was Independence Day for white men only, everybody else was excluded. On July 4, slaves were still being whipped by their masters and women had no voting rights.
August 19 should be the biggest celebration since it includes more Americans. July 4 only celebrates a minority of the American population – white men.
I am sickened and heartbroken. This country, the one that gave me my freedom back, is under siege. And I am angry. I’ve seen this before. I am a Marco Rubio. And I will fight and die like our founders for the Republic and our constitution. God bless America. It’s time to take a stand. My poor dad who saw our cattle ranches confiscated by the communists in Cuba and was jailed for 5 years for his opposition always said the only good communist is a dead one. Well, that is the same thing for the DSA. Read what they say on their website. It’s all there. I pray that we will not have to do the necessary. But in Miami we are ready
Al Rapey Green is always good for laughs.
I recently revisited the Barbara Jordan Commission’s recommendations for Immigration Reform. Do you know what the 1st one was:
…not allowing immigrants to cluster together into enclaves. The Report recommended “Americanization” as a systematic way to make sure every immigrant assimilates quickly. Learning English is high priority.
It doesn’t define exactly what an American is – only that there is some cluster of values, beliefs, and skills that identify what we have in common. It isn’t based on race or other immutables. It’s based on traits that can be picked up through study and osmosis. You defeat this by allowing immigrants to cluster into self-similar enclaves. We’ve made the same mistake Europe made.
Wow. We’ve really lost some of the clear thinking of the 1990s — the Jordan Commission Report was written in ’97.
*. Of mind, body, soul and spirit, the spirit of a thing , a place , a person has changed. It’s difficult to grasp the meaning.
With the criminality of scotus the spirit has changed.
Let the dead bury the dead.
Thanks AI for the entertainment.
ᴄᴀꜱʜ ᴇᴀʀɴɪɴɢ ᴊᴏʙ ᴛᴏ ᴇᴀʀɴꜱ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴛʜᴀɴ $700 ᴘᴇʀ ᴅᴀʏ. ɢᴇᴛᴛɪɴɢ ᴘᴀɪᴅ ᴡᴇᴇᴋʟʏ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴛʜᴀɴ $3500 ᴏʀ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ꜱɪᴍᴘʟʏ ᴅᴏɪɴɢ ᴇᴀꜱʏ ᴡᴏʀᴋ ᴏɴʟɪɴᴇ. ɴᴏ ꜱᴘᴇᴄɪᴀʟ ꜱᴋɪʟʟꜱ ʀᴇQᴜɪʀᴇᴅ ꜰᴏʀ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴊᴏʙ ᴀɴᴅ ʀᴇɢᴜʟᴀʀ ᴇᴀʀɴɪɴɢ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴀʀᴇ ᴊᴜꜱᴛ ᴀᴡᴇꜱᴏᴍᴇ. (z21) ᴀʟʟ ʏᴏᴜ ɴᴇᴇᴅ ɪꜱ 2 ʜʀꜱ ᴀ ᴅᴀʏ ꜰᴏʀ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴊᴏʙ ᴀɴᴅ ᴇᴀʀɴɪɴɢ ᴀʀᴇ ᴀᴡᴇꜱᴏᴍᴇ. ᴇᴠᴇʀʏ ᴘᴇʀꜱᴏɴ ᴄᴀɴ ɢᴇᴛ ᴛʜɪꜱ ʙʏ ꜰᴏʟʟᴏᴡ
ᴅᴇᴛᴀɪʟꜱ ʜᴇʀᴇ….. https://pr0app2g01.blogspot.com/
It would do my heart good, to see rep green perpwalked in cuffs, for conspiring with major malfunction, to violate the UCMJ, code of conduct.
Our country was founded in a unique era brimming over intellectually with Humanist Enlightenment and Scientific Rationalism. Let’s be honest — it was only the most active thinkers who were reading ad discussing Voltaire, Rousseau and Locke — while everyone struggled with 50% childhood mortality, cities with no sanitation systems, no indoor plumbing, candles for lighting and frequent devastating fires, primitive medicine and dentistry, and lives that rarely reached age 60.
What they had to marvel at were glass windows, paper making and printing presses, ocean-going sailing ships, muskets, good beers and ales, and vast unexplored wilderness to the west.
Our continent was a bountiful expanse of temperate climate where crops could grow with huge investments of human labor, and a rich network of river systems for transportation. The peopling of our continent went back some 13,000 years. The first Europeans were rugged outdoorsmen who were delighted to find common ground with Native Americans in trading furs for hand-manufactured knives and axes. This brush with traditional tribal societies cemented a shared ethic of individual freedom and egalitarianism, exhilarating to these Europeans who were escaping a rigid, aristocratic class system where your life potential was already decided at birth. This preference for Native American egalitarian freedom 200 years later found a sympathetic resonance in the Enlightenment’s rejection of authoritarian Devine Right. Our national DNA is forged from that synthesis of naturalistic lifestyle and emergent Western philosophy.
The system the Founders gave us for resolving internal conflict, defending from external threats and bettering our general welfare is quite a miracle to behold. We take it for grated at our peril.
Beware those who are trashing this system because they like the feel of wearing victimhood on their sleeves.
Personally, I believe in the doctrine of Manifest Destiny. This is the greatest country in history. Where else could someone as vacuous as Barack Hussein Obama become a national leader? BTW, Obama’s father was Frank Marshall Davis – that illustrious member of Communist Party USA.
You’re sure of that, right?
I am converting to the “Wok/Communism/Radical-Left-Wing-Revolutionary-Destruction Party” for very good reasons, Jonathan. You have lots of money. I want it.
Ooooops! Almost Forgot {The Reverend Jeremiah Wright} again. 1 other motivation. My party is perfect. No scoundrels. No sinners. We all agree on everything (especially on how bad we want what you got) and don’t have a selfish bone in our bodies!
Earn your own money, if you can.
Professor…..Excellent post! Thank you for continuing to inspire and influence. We appreciate you and value each day’s posts. May God continue to bless you and all of America!
75 years of innocent Americans being falsely imprisoned by the FBI’s COINTELPRO program!
Only juries imprison Americans. The FBI cannot go beyond an investigatory role. Appreciate that difference.
BEHOLD fellow commenters, years of intentional deception have been stripped away in one thread.
The person, not persons, behind the multiple commenters in these threads cowardly hiding behind the monikers called “Anonymous” is one person that’s now openly arguing with himself. This troll is doing everything he can to sow the seeds of chaos.
The patterns are clear.
Hey stupid, no one cares.
Go argue with yourself, you alki-bopping moron.
Steve – the intellectual giants that founded this nation could foresee that air-head intellectual pygmies with virtually no brain capacity at all would seek to destroy it from within. The Foundind Fathers knew these little tiny imbeciles would be called “liberals” and would hate the nation they live in. The genius of the Founders was that they made a nation strong enough to withstand the stupidity of these liberals and still move forward as the greatest nation the world has ever seen in spite of these moronic stupid air-head liberal intellectual nothings.
-A Proud American
They’ve shown me that they’re intellectually unprepared to converse in a real debate.
Steve, don’t get played. The only REAL conservative commenters here are you, Diogenes, Meyer, Young, Karen and maybe two others. Everyone else is Estovir except two or three real liberals.
Get lost ANON!!
Olly and George are also real.
But george is a dumb one, who claims he knows everything.