Commentary: Even in ugly times, the bicentennial united us. America 250 still can
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Set us as preferred America 250” is no “Spirit of ‘76.”For those of us who remember the bicentennial, the semiquincentennial is a complete and utter dud.Many fine festivities will take place on and around July 4, but compared with the years-long nationwide celebration that marked this country’s 200th anniversary, 250 feels like a nonevent.
Perhaps it was inevitable.Semiquincentennial (meaning half of a 500-year anniversary) certainly doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily as bicentennial and our current president isn’t making it any catchier.
Mostly because he seems to think 250 is the new 80 (the birthday President Trump recently marked with his UFC Freedom 250 cage match on the White House lawn).As many have noted, Trump’s method of honoring this country’s birthday involves making it all about him by demolishing parts of the White House (to install a new bunker-like ballroom), attempting to set up a $1.8-billion slush fund for pardoned Jan.6 rioters, seeking to build a triumphal arch that a majority of Americans oppose and trying to slap his name and/or image on any surface he can think of (including a proposed $250 bill).
No wonder so many artists have dropped out of the concert series planned for the Great American State Fair in Washington, D.C.UFC Freedom 250, a celebration of Trump’s 80th birthday and the country’s 250th, was not so much a sporting event as it was a piece of naked and nationalistic propaganda.To be fair, the federal government’s involvement in bicentennial planning also got bogged down with political and personal hubris.The national commission, originally created by President Lyndon B.
Johnson, was reformed under President Richard Nixon.Plagued by criticism and scandal, it was eventually dissolved by Congress and replaced by a new commission that decided to mostly fund commu...