Is the bellyaching over President Trump’s starring role in today’s Fourth of July celebration in Washington justified, or just another example of critics finding fault with anything he does?
After all, what’s wrong with the president leading the festivities in our nation’s capital?
We’re not persuaded. It pains us to say it, but our president has yet to meet a moment that he held higher than himself, a moment where he felt compelled to say: ‘This time, it’s not about me.’
Not even on Independence Day, when we celebrate our unity — the one day that should always be bigger than any individual — priest, pauper or president.
Americans celebrate the Fourth of July to commemorate the founding of our nation on a bedrock of courage and war fought not for its own sake but to bring to life world-changing ideas. What we celebrate, as another president so famously said 87 years after the fact, is that our forebears brought forth upon this continent something new: “a government of the people, by the people and for the people.”
Those words are enshrined at the Lincoln Memorial, where Trump is preparing to deliver an hourlong speech. We can only hope his words respect the spirit of that sacred place, built for a leader who did everything he could to save our divided nation.
This country has been tested, and when found wanting, has improved. It’s still improving, still churning toward a more perfect union.
America, with all its tests, merits our love and our admiration still. And it is that spirit of gratitude and commitment to our people’s grand striving that will be on display at countless celebrations in Houston today, from the music and fireworks extravaganza at Eleanor Tinsley Park downtown this evening to the backyard barbecues many of us will share with friends or family.
By orchestrating the capital festivities to highlight his own role as president, to brandish the might of our military in a parade-style review, and to allow the Republican National Committee to treat the National Mall like the site of a political fundraiser, Trump has done something that few thought possible: He has upstaged the celebration of our nation’s birth, relegating the parade along Constitution Avenue, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the masses of patriotic revelers themselves to the sideshow.
Any American president is only as strong as the nation itself. These days our strength is waning under the strain of division. Americans need every opportunity we can get — a grand fireworks display, a free concert at the Capitol, our anthem sung in unison — to remind us of shared values and traditions, to remind us that we are one.
This day, of all days, Trump should have the sense to play second fiddle to something greater: America.
On Independence Day, we celebrate a nation where majesty rests not with a man, but with the ideals upon which America was founded.