(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Kitchen Table Kibitzing: Worst. Birthday. Ever [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2026-04-04  

Driving around town to get bagels the other day, I passed a house proudly displaying not only an American flag but also some kind of tacky banner highlighting the fact that the nation’s 250th birthday is rapidly approaching. Since many overt demonstrations of the flag have, sadly, in the past ten years, become synonymous with Trump support (with the size of the flag invariably directly proportional to its owner’s own un-American and innately traitorous nature), I pretty much assumed the homeowner was one of these folks, and I have no reason to doubt that assumption. The American flag is no longer flown by these people as a statement of true patriotism, but as a bludgeon to intimidate people they hate. That’s where their so-called love of country begins and ends these days, along with (for some of them) their bank accounts and stock portfolios.

Jan. 6 2021

This experience and a few others got me thinking (so you don’t have to!) about the glorious, upcoming 250th anniversary of this country, and how it will play out given the fact that 77 million Americans were apparently A-OK with electing a person such as Trump to represent them in the Oval office (probably quite a few less of them are so sanguine today in light of $4-5 gas prices, but that’s the subject of another post). What kind of birthday celebration should we expect?

I was around during the bicentennial, where we were all living in a much different country and there was some reason to hope that the future of that country would turn out well. The celebrations during that time were also rather tacky and commercialized (Frank Zappa wrote a song about it), but at least despite relatively high inflation there was a general feeling of approbation for the country’s overall general course.

It was a different time. Although I was admittedly a bit young to notice such things, I seem to recall that the positive aspects of this country’s national evolution were emphasized. The political parties were drastically different, but one of them wasn’t entirely made up of delusional, sadistic and hateful cultists, slavishly obedient to a single, woefully flawed individual. Today, however, I’m not sure how a nation that is rapidly regressing both in character and quality will go about celebrating any “anniversary.” I suspect from this administration it will be mostly empty, macho posturing and gaudy paeans to the military rather than anything else. Maybe some desultory whites-only parades carried on Fox News and other captive right-wing media. Maybe some rah-rah moments at baseball games, with some jets overflying. And a whole lot of cheesy stuff that you maybe ought not want to buy.

Because...really, what will be worth celebrating about this country reaching 250 with these kind of people running it straight into the ground?

Americans aren’t going to be in a very festive mood this summer. In fact, by July I suspect they’ll be quite surly. Inflation will most likely be skyrocketing, gas prices will still be through the roof, the falsified jobs numbers they’ll continue to trot out (and revise weeks later in Friday night news dumps) won’t translate into any real new jobs (outside maybe the service industry; there will certainly be a demand for bartenders!). Iran will still be in control of the Strait of Hormuz, barring some all-out ground war that Americans decidedly will not support. People’s retirement savings will likely be circling the bowl if not in free fall by then. Immigrant communities will continue to live in terror of the ICE Gestapo. Civil rights and voting rights will continue to be assaulted and rolled back by the likes of Russell Vought and Stephen Miller. The environment will continue to be willfully degraded.

And I have a suspicion it will be a very hot summer.

If anything this 250th is shaping up to be a sad dirge for America. I suppose the best we can hope for is that Americans use the occasion to demonstrate their antipathy towards the current regime, with a view towards mobilizing for elections that will then be only four months away.

But I can’t see how the zeitgeist is going to be very celebratory based on the country’s current trajectory, except maybe for those delusional yahoos and their oversize flags.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/4/4/2376269/-Kitchen-Table-Kibitzing-Worst-Birthday-Ever?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/