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.
If God can do anything, then why didn’t he make the Redcoats all have heart attacks? That would have been easier.
When an American Pope characterizes the United States as a great country, you know you’re on the right side of history.
Happy 250th celebration of the Declaration of Independence! Happy July 4th America!
As a son of this great country, founded by courageous men and women who dreamed of liberty and of a better life for themselves and for their children, I join you in asking God’s blessings upon America’s future, that the lofty ideals enshrined at the beginning of the Declaration of Independence may continue to guide the flourishing of the nation in unity, justice and peace….
The forbearers of this country, men and women of diverse backgrounds, religions and languages, were able to find that common ground and the strength necessary to pursue a better future. The principles that inspired America’s founders, rooted as they are in the truth of the human person, brought them together in a single cause, a common dream. Unity lent strength to that dream, giving rise, under God, to the United States of America. E pluribus unum — out of many, one. In order for a nation to flourish, it must be truly united; united not by goals bound to momentary endeavors, but by ideals that do not fade with the passing of time. May the principles we have reflected upon today — a shared human dignity, equality and the rights laid out in the Declaration of Independence — ever be a source of such unity and a guiding light for the present moment and for the years to come.
– Pope Leo XIV,
Trump Pardons More Fraudsters
Donald Trump on Friday issued pardons to 11 men – two convicted fraudsters and nine charged with having violated the federal Clean Air Act by disabling or otherwise modifying trucks’ emissions controls.
Among the pardon recipients was Adam Kidan, the president of a light industrial staffing company who had been sentenced to nearly six years in prison in 2006 in connection with the purchase of a fleet of gambling boats. Kidan was a former business partner of Washington DC lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/04/trump-pardons-11-people-fourth-of-july
You would have supported Hitler.
Prof. Turley, nicely stated framing the crisis of faith in America. You nailed it.
Do you like pig semen on your pancakes?
This is just like how dictators like Putin, Stalin, Hitler, etc. want to control information about themselves, and their supporters lend a helping hand. I thought you were all about freedom of expression and speaking truth to power.
This is just like . . .
What are you referring to when you say “this”? And who is restricting your freedom to say whatever you want?
One historical tidbit that some probably know but others may not:
Today is also the 200th anniversary of the death of both John Adams (second POTUS) and Thomas Jefferson (third POTUS). Both Founding Fathers died on the same day – July 4, 1826 – the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Imagine a hypothetical job applicant. He can’t spell the simplest words, such as “heal” and “tap.” Confused by geography, he thinks there’s an African country called “Nambia.” As for American history, he’s under the impression that Andrew Jackson, who died in 1845, was angry about the Civil War, and that Frederick Douglass, who died in 1895, is still alive.
Given the alarming state of his knowledge, you might wonder what job he could get. Unfortunately, he’s not hypothetical, and the job he got was president of the United States.
People sometimes call our nation “the American experiment.” Recently, though, we’ve been lab rats in another, perverse American experiment, seemingly designed to answer this question: Who’s the most ignorant person the United States is willing to elect?
The vacuous pioneers of the MAGA cult turned ignorance from a liability into a virtue. By relentlessly lowering the bar, they made it possible for today’s politicians to wear their dunce caps with pride. Gone are the days when leaders had to hide how much they didn’t know. Now cluelessness is an electoral asset and smart politicians must play dumb, or risk voters’ wrath. Welcome to the survival of the dimmest.
As the Trump nightmare unfolds, well-meaning people try to soothe a rattled nation by arguing that he is no dumber than some of our previous dumb presidents. In this valiant attempt to pretend the hellscape enveloping us was nothing new, they cited a bygone commander in chief reputed to be one of our densest: Warren G. Harding. It’s true that our twenty-ninth president would never have been put in charge of designing the next generation of supercolliders. After Harding’s inaugural address in 1921, H. L. Mencken wrote, “No other such complete and dreadful nitwit is to be found in the pages of American history.” Mencken should’ve added, “. . . so far.”
People have pilloried Harding’s campaign slogan, “A Return to Normalcy,” for which he allegedly coined the word “normalcy” when a perfectly good actual word, “normality,” already existed. But, according to Merriam-Webster, “normalcy” first appeared a decade before Harding was born, in a mathematical dictionary published in 1855. Now, it’s true that Harding did our language no favors by popularizing “normalcy,” a word almost as annoying as “impactful,” but he was a slacker compared to Trump, whose mutilation of English could fill a non-word-a-day calendar. Out of fairness, I’ll exclude from discussion the much-mocked “covfefe,” which was probably just a late-night typo, and draw your attention to remarks he made at the Pentagon in 2019, when he seemed to invent a new military term, “infantroopen.” Based on my research, there are no prior appearances of “infantroopen” in any dictionary, mathematical or otherwise.
One quality Harding and Trump have in common: neither excelled at monogamy. But, even here, Harding wins. In 2014, the Library of Congress released letters he wrote to his lover, Carrie Fulton Phillips, containing florid passages such as this: “I love you more than all the world and have no hope of reward on earth or hereafter so precious as that in your dear arms, in your thrilling lips, in your matchless breasts, in your incomparable embrace.”
It’s hard to imagine Trump writing something so heartfelt to Stormy Daniels, or a sentence that long.
^ All you have to do is see the “MAGA cult” in the middle of the above screed to know it is yet another piece of hatred foisted upon us by the hateful trolls that are out in force today, and not worth reading.
What are you afraid of? Hearts and minds being reached?
To support Trump one only needs to look closely at the alternative. Compared to Kamala Trump is a Rhodes Scholar.
The last time I voted ” for” a presidential candidate was Reagans first campaign. I have voted Republican ever since but those votes have always been in opposition to weak minded nit wits or people just so out of tune with what America is that I couldn’t stomach them.
Hating Trump and people who support him has become a leftist sport. So much hate exists that just like the Jacobins the American Left is now eating its own.
Franklin’s mobacracy has seemingly arrived.
Happy 4th to ALL ! My country, ’tis of THEE today.
Not the naysayers. Not the doubters. Not the trolls.
But ’tis of THEE.
When I was a kid, I heard these lyrics at civic events, sports games, and upon HS graduation.
My country, ’tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims’ pride,
From ev’ry mountainside
Let freedom ring!
source: https://www.lyricsondemand.com/miscellaneouslyrics/patrioticsongslyrics/mycountrytisoftheelyrics.html
On the 4th, my parents would throw a picnic, and my brother and I were sent out to attach strips of red or white or blue crepe paper (those big rolls, remember them?) around branches of wild honeysuckle and other bushes along the property lines.
(p.s. notwithstanding red, white, and blue, -my favorite is still: very. cold. orange Creamsicles.)
Despite our lovely trolls trying to twist what I said yesterday, we are ALL born free in this country, with equal “privileges and immunities.” If you mess up your life or waste it after that, don’t blame the rest of us.
MY very best wishes for all today. Be safe.
Lin,
Well said and a Happy 4th of July to you!
Washington And Trump: No Comparison
John Adams praised Washington for his self-command — a trait foreign to Trump.
One was modest — reflected in the refined but decidedly unflashy furnishings at Mount Vernon. The other is megalomaniacal — reflected in the blinding gold accouterments festooned around the West Wing and his immoderate ballroom, which would eclipse a White House that was meant to provide a contrast with the extravagant palaces of Europe.
One famously wouldn’t tell a lie. The other famously can’t stop telling lies.
Just about the only thing they have in common is that Washington’s myth involved him chopping down a cherry tree. And Trump may want to do the same with some of our historic cherry trees, as he usurps East Potomac Park to install a ritzy golf course.
From: “Founding Father vs Foundering Toddler” by Maureen Dowd
Today’s New York Times
…………………………………..
Have MAGA types ever wondered if George Washington would have festooned the Oval Office with all that gold leaf crap?
^ The Chinese Communist Party bot never takes a day off ^
Are you saying that Americans shouldn’t have the freedom to vote however they want?
Democrats did. They tried to keep people off election ballots. They are anti-American. They are anti-democracy, the one they claim they are defending.
We come out in the right place by remembering that Res Ipsa is the child of the 4th of july. Go forth and have a good one.
America haters don’t celebrate this day so they have extra time to sit in mommy’s basement and spew hatred on blogs like this one.
In my opinion, Rep. Al Green is a racist and a moron, the people that voted for him are fools.
In celebration of the 4th of July, Trump is allowing people to ride their jet skis in the Reflecting Pool.
Humorous or not, this it pure fake news and parroting it make you a willful propagandist.
I urge everyone to listen to JD Vance speech today. It puts into words that actions of those who are the builders and it has taken many to bring this country forward. It is the many parts that make us whole. And he talks about those who don’t see this. Those who work against the whole have a very definite purpose and it is enslavement to their own narrow vision. Sadly, power does have the potential to corrupt and without saying it, JD Vance communicates the contrast between the greatness of this nation in the contributions of many and those who know that division keeps hate alive and gives power to the few. Without articulating they are selling mental enslavement.
Today as we celebrate 250 years of an ideal, I pray that God will continue to bless this nation and the people of this country.
Today we celebrate the past but our future is yet to be written so we do have choices. We are stronger together than separate!
Happy 4th!
My uncle died at the age of 19 in the Philippines after being captured twice, one of which forced him to be a part of the Bataan Death March. He was proud of his American citizenship even though he had never set foot on U.S. soil. So I do not understand why is there so much hate for a country that so many people want to come to and reap the benefits that are provided by our free society. Even the ones that come on this site and spew their hatred, lies and divisiveness do not realize how lucky they are. We have elections every 2 years for your house representative, 6 for your senator and every 4 for the president, so how can we have a dictator. The real problem is that you are not getting what you want so the rage is similar to a two year old throwing a temper tantrum.
Perhaps the anon’s and Sally that spew their vitriol try to live in a country that meets their desires instead of spouting hate against the U.S. When was the last time Russia, Cuba, China, and Iran had an election that was honest.
Happy 250 America!!!!!
RCS is Estovir with another bogus, first-person testimony.
It’s always some fictitious commenter with a ‘jarring’ personal story that presumably bolsters the theme of Turley’s column. Though here the testimony is some excuse for taking potshots at liberal commenters.
^ The low-IQ anonymous troll who thinks everyone else is named Estovir ^
RCS – thank you for sharing the story. Ignore the hateful troll who responded with its typical hatred. The trolls are out in force today because, as someone else said, they don’t celebrate America so they have more time on their hands to troll from their mom’s basement.
Dismissing dissent as mental disease is something communists would do.
Dissent is fine. A life-dominating pathological hatred based on baseless slander, not so much. Hate-filled anonymous trolls suffering from TDS can’t tell the difference between those very different things.
You got that right, young man.
There haven’t been any ‘communists’ around since Stalin kicked the bucket. A life-domination pathological hared of communists is self-defeating . .. at best.
We do, otoh, have a rather pronounced issue with wealth disparity. A few Trillionaires owning 90%+ of the country is not sustainable. That is a perversion of the free-market .. . not a product of it.
The Free Market and Hippies won the cold war. .. whether you like it or not. *see, e.g. China and Russia
There must be some better way of ‘sharing’ the wealth. *e.g. you should pay me just for telling you that.
It’s not E pluribus anus – ‘out of many Trump’.
*It’s E pluribus unum – out of many one.
Your criticisms miss the mark by a mile. I accurately describe people. As for the hateful commenters, I hate the disease they suffer from, and what it does to their minds, but not them — just like I hate cancer but not the cancer patient. I can describe the ravages of cancer without hating the cancer patient.
. . . pronounced issue with wealth disparity . . .
That is typical communist talk. Who cares about actual wealth and quality of life – it’s the disparity that matters.
So in your mindset, if everyone’s real wealth doubled that would be bad because the disparity would grow. But the poor who saw their real wealth double would take that deal in a heartbeat. Think about that for a minute. That is exactly what’s happening in America: the greatest wealth engine the world has ever known (free markets) has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty, but you pathologically concentrate only on the wealthiest and the disparity. That’s pathetic . . . and un-American. Nobody who is the target of your criticism got wealth by stealing. They earned it through innovation. Steve Jobs is a great example. The technology you use to spew your communist thoughts was invented by a person who got wealthy by giving you the means to say communist things. So . . . I don’t have any respect for your type of thinking, it’s what has caused the most misery in the history of the world, and if you think that’s an exaggeration, just think about the literally hundreds of millions who have starved or met other untimely deaths at the hands of socialist or communist governments.
You’re living in the past, old man. .. Wayyy in the past!
And seriously confused. I’m saying great wealth disparity is a perversion of the free market. .. not a product of it.
It is not sustainable.
I’m also saying it’s Un American for so many to live in abject poverty while a few trillionaires, if not billionaires, frolic on Epstein Island.
Wake up .. . this is the 21st century.
*Happy 4th .. . from the Most American
Anonymous wrote, “Dismissing dissent as mental disease is something communists would do.”
Actually, no Anonymous, that’s not something communists would do, communists simply erase the dissenter from society by vanishing them into a Gulag or a cemetery.
Dismissing obvious mental disease, that’s rooted in pure and absolute hatred that consumes the psyche, as dissent is something only a moronic sociommunists (sō sē äm yə nists) would do to try an justify their uncontrollable, morally bankrupt, hate.