Our Past Was Great, Our Future Is Bright: Lessons From President Trump’s 250th Address

Independence Day has passed, and we are now 250 years and a couple of days old, but I still have the spirit of 1776 on my mind and in my heart. Over Independence Day weekend, I have been thinking about several things in particular. First, I have been thinking about how President Trump pulled off the Greatest Show On Earth by giving the nation an unforgettable Independence Day celebration, complete with the largest, most spectacular, and most beautifully orchestrated fireworks display in history.

I have also been thinking of the recent past. A friend sent me digitized footage of his local Independence Day parade from the early ‘90s. Several things struck me about the footage. The first thing I thought of is that, ignoring the cars and minor changes to clothing styles, the footage could have been taken at any Independence Day parade in any city or small town from around the early 20th century up until the first decade of the 21st century.

For all the left likes to present a Marxist dialectic about how the United States is a land of continual change, the fact of the matter is that apart from our rapid advances in technology from 1776 up until the present day, until recently, our culture has been remarkably consistent.

Thanks to the internet, previously ignored and difficult-to-find original source material from our past is now readily available. We can see the faces and hear the voices of veterans from the Civil War and the Spanish-American War.

We can see how our forefathers celebrated events like Independence Day and Memorial Day on professional newsreels and on home movies that have been uploaded by Americans who care about the truth.

We can even read newspapers detailing the big stories of the day from virtually any time over the last 250 years and even before.

The story told by the words, footage, faces, and voices all comes together to tell an American story in which patriotism has always been the rule rather than the exception—where civility, social sophistication, and the seamless integration of rugged individualism and family values go hand in hand.

Of course, there have been tumultuous experiences in our past, but unlike with many nations, these have always been the exceptions that prove the rule in the United States. In fact, one of the reasons that certain sensationalist politicians and “historians” try to exaggerate the volume of tumult while downplaying the centuries of tranquility is because there is money and fame to be made by slandering our great nation.

Such people, whether communist mayors or gutter journalists, should re-read Mark 8:36: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

Sadly, over the last 15 to 20 years, many of our state and federal officials have been captured by the anti-American notion that our great land has always been in flux, always chaotic, ever changing in a cultural sense.

And while this is ahistorical, following the election of Barack Obama, this notion found a powerful ally in a powerful administration. As politicians often do, the Obama years were a time when this false narrative was willed into action.

As a result, once-wholesome Independence Day parades have, in too many of our cities and even suburban towns, been turned into scenes of violence and degeneracy. Too many summer days are now blighted by grown men walking around naked without shame and without the restraint of a proactive police force.

When you open the borders, defund the police, and promote the grievances of every obscure group over a unifying message of patriotism, the results are bad. The results are so bad, in fact, that no one likes them, even those who vote for the leftists who created the conditions that have led to the chaos, crime, and anti-American/alien cultures proliferating in our once-happy nation.

And this leads me to the fact that many on the left have openly criticized our glorious celebration of Independence led by President Trump.

President Trump’s political credo is now and has always been “Make America Great Again.” The reason that this resonates among millions of Americans is that we want to restore a country where a cultural continuity blossomed from 1776 right up until the early 21st century.

We want our celebrations to be fun rather than violent. We want our summers to be wholesome rather than perverse. We want our children to be safe rather than frightened. This is what it means to Make America Great Again, and President Trump has proved that it is not just possible, but advisable to celebrate veterans, honor young American heroes, showcase great American talent, and give all Americans a fireworks show for the history books.

This is what people want, and it is what so many want to take away. As Orwell wrote, “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute.”

The reason that the radical left wants us to forget the consistent greatness of our past is so that they can totally divorce it from the present. Once this is done, the Marxist communists are free to recast the future in their image rather than in the image of consistent Americana.

The two visions of America played out simultaneously during our 250th celebrations. On the one hand, President Trump offered a celebration consistent with the American greatness of the past, while integrating the best technology of the modern era. On the other, certain elected figures took the opportunity to parent a wholly alien and inauthentic vision of America.

I have evidence that President Trump’s vision wins when the game isn’t rigged. As we know, when elections are conducted fairly, Trump wins big. But there is another way to measure the popularity of patriotism compared to pessimism and ahistoricism.

When the internet is comparatively free from censorship, millions of Americans view images and video of “vintage” Americana, from past parades to the way McDonald’s, shopping malls, and department stores used to look. Both young and old Americans are hungry for reminders of how nice the past used to be.

They are looking at images of the greatness that all of us in the MAGA movement want to restore. They are seeking contact with the greatness that they know can be made GREAT AGAIN.

Every time someone likes, shares, or positively comments on one of the ever-growing vintage-themed pieces of content online, they are voting for President Trump, they are endorsing the essence of MAGA, and they are quietly condemning those who want to rewrite American history into a chaotic tale of misery, rather than a story of greatness where our achievements are always improving while our cultural essence remains strong and steady.

In America, anything is possible, and on the 4th of July, President Trump demonstrated that if we want to restore greatness and make it greater than ever before, all it takes is unflinching commitment.

As the late Senator Barry Goldwater said, “We must, and we shall, return to proven ways—not because they are old, but because they are true.” Let us all resolve, in our 250th year, to uphold the timeless truth about America, no matter how many shrill voices say otherwise.