America’s birthday in the era of Trump 2.0

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A personal reflection:
This is not the first time the 4th of July that has occurred during a time of division, during a time America was flawed, and during a time of pessimism. There has never been a fourth of July when this was not true in one way or another. I grew up during the Vietnam era an era people compare with some justification to now. Yet I always was able to put that aside. One day a year or a few days a year for silliness and whitewashing on steroids is a good thing. America has accomplished unique and great things and they deserve to be recognized and celebrated without distraction. We have all the other days for that.

The last ten years it has become harder and harder for me to justify that way of thinking for many reasons. I am that type of person who believes one should not be embarrassed or proud based on what your government is doing because most likely you had nothing to do with it. I have found things my government has done embarrassing but this is the first time I can say I am embarrassed to be an American the last emotion I thought I would ever feel. While this is a culmination of a lot of things what culminated it is the way we are treating Canada and Greenland symbolized by Kristi Noem visiting a border town and three times on the American side saying “U.S.A. Number 1” stepping over to the Canadian side and saying “The 51st State”. Of course America has done much worse to be embarrassed about but that was my trigger, what can I say?

The above should not totally negate the great things America has done so to me this 4th of July is a bittersweet celebration of America’s past and mourning that those things that are gone.

Next year is America’s 250th birthday. I am old enough to remember America’s 200th birthday. Coming into it in the wake of Vietnam, Watergate, and the radical social changes of the recent past there was a lot of negative feelings and apathy. When the bicentennial year came while there were a few counter events they were small and ignored. A lot of us laughed at the hucksterism (“get your bicentennial ……… now”) but the celebration generally went off well and it did seem to signal the beginning of moving on.

Maybe next year will be a version of the above. I can’t envision it. Trump will be presiding over it after all. I am dreading it. I am both pissed and sad I feel that way about what should be a celebration.

Thanks for sharing your experience. It's neat to see the perspective of someone who has lived through past eras of strife.

For me, though. I don't celebrate the day. In various years past I did, but it's been a very long time ago. I'm a lot younger than you, and I had the privilege of being born with the USA had seemingly gotten much better in many regards. So I grew up with some pride, but as I've gotten older I've realized that a lot of what I was proud of is either much more fragile than I ever knew or is simply not true and I couldn't see it because I was sheltered from it.

Of course, growing up as a woman, non-religious, LGBT, etc. the foundation for the disillusionment was always there. I always thought we had issues, but I thought that we were on the path to getting better about those issues. I thought that our culture was progressing and that the misogynists, bigots, theocrats, etc. would be outcasted for their demonstrably harmful, unreasonable and nasty views. But... That hope has been not only decimated, but I think crushed in pretty much all entirety at this point.

Disinformation, depravity, hatred, sexism, theocracy, etc. has rabidly infected too much of the populace against all reason, and the baddies have won. The baddies are wrecking irreparable havoc in our government now. Even if fair elections even happen, I have no faith in anything about that. Even if somehow progressives get back in power, the damage is already irreparable and also the populace is so disinformed and clueless, that I can't help but see that even if progressives do win, it won't be for long. The Christofascists will take power once again in four to eight years afterward because the populace saw that gas prices were too high or something stupid like that.

The country has been rotted from the inside out and I don't think that we can fix it at this point. I hope I'm wrong, but... the only times I seem to be wrong are when I have any hope. >.<

At this point, the only Independence Day I'll ever celebrate is seeing my state or region be separated from the depraved USA.

I bought a florescent pink golf outfit from JoFit as my way of celebrating the 4th of July.
As well as having a nice lunch at a seafood shack.

JoFit's sizing calculator suggested my sizes as XS, 0, and XS. Good thing clothes don't have genders.

It's the 4th of July all over the world, not just in the USA.

In Australia we have a similar celebration called "Australia Day" on Jan 26 which celebrates three things
1. Founding of Australia
2. our independence from Britain
3. Birth of a nation

For most Aussies its a time for patriotism, waving Aussie flags at parades, Barbeques and fireworks. But in more recent times Australia day has become a time to pause, take stock and reflect on what it means to be Australian. For some this means soul searching and for many (particularly aboriginals) now call it "invasion day". Immigrants also get a little uncomfortable due to association between Australia day and far right appropriation of the flag.

I therefore can't imagine all Americans feel the same way on July 4.

Is rising up an option at this point?