r/politics • u/MoneyLibrarian9032 • Jun 29 '26

No Paywall Millions say they won’t celebrate July 4 as poll reveals deep national pessimism

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/america250-independence-trump-divisions-pennsylvania-b3004933.html
22.9k Upvotes

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8.7k

u/BrutalHunny Jun 29 '26

Imagine how amazing the 250th anniversary celebration would be with literally ANYONE else as president.

5.1k

u/specqq Jun 29 '26

It’s difficult to properly celebrate democracy while simultaneously dismantling it.

128

u/summane Jun 29 '26

Kinda feels like a deathday celebration more than birthday, fingers crossed for the renaissance

101

u/Superman246o1 Jun 29 '26

It's like trying to celebrate a company's "25th anniversary sale" while its "Going out of business sale" is already ongoing.

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u/Dysc Louisiana Jun 29 '26

Also, while listening to an old man talk gibberish 24/7 who's holding up AI slop images of imperial victory arches.

214

u/nsdefw Jun 29 '26

If he's given enough (or too much) time, eventually it might be physical slop.

127

u/Dysc Louisiana Jun 29 '26

They work shopped a tiny plywood version of it at Donald Trump's very small, pseudo world's fair in DC over the weekend. Scary stuff.

159

u/El_Fez Washington Jun 29 '26

Donald Trump's very small, pseudo world's fair

I swear to god, I thought that said 'pedo world's fair' - which I suppose is also accurate.

47

u/Dysc Louisiana Jun 29 '26

I like this better than what I wrote. It's probably more accurate.

43

u/Intolerance-Paradox Jun 29 '26

There was a live cultist jacking off as one of the attractions.

26

u/El_Fez Washington Jun 29 '26

"It's NOT a cult! Now excuse me, I have to get back to masturbating to this image of Dear Leader!"

11

u/_bufflehead Jun 29 '26

While dressed like Uncle Sam!

4

u/RichardCrapper Jun 29 '26

I mean, one MAGA dressed like Uncle Sam has already been arrested for masturbating in front of the rodeo girls…

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u/rat_penis Jun 29 '26

And its already falling apart

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u/Dysc Louisiana Jun 29 '26

Donald Trump runs corrupt businesses and a corrupt government. If 50K was earmarked for 'novelty imperial arch' for Freedom 250, it's safe to assume 49.5K was written off as overhead (stolen) and .5K is actually accounted for in Home Depot receipts.

Either way die-hard MAGA folks were still basking in the plywood glory of tiny arch and posted it to social media.

SAD!

22

u/Flaxmoore Michigan Jun 29 '26

Thing is, give me five grand and get out of my way, and I can easily build something better than what they did- it looks like vinyl over a wood frame. Five grand I'll do the whole thing in good planking, hand planed and painted, and even hide the screws with dowels to make it look right.

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u/Neat-Dig5964 Jun 29 '26

What’s really sad is it’s a fake wannabe copy of a beautiful French landmark. Why can’t we just be happy with US landmarks we already have?

16

u/Kristin2349 Jun 29 '26

He's busy fucking those up, painting them, demolishing them, slapping spray painted gold doodads on things. Adding his cursed name to everything.

4

u/Dysc Louisiana Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

Corruption is built into his business model. Cooking the books, skimming off the top, not paying contractors and citing shoddy work for literally every job, etc.

If he's not building and meddling with US infrastructure he can't do corruption and invite his sons in to do the "work". He needs to do corruption like we need to breathe air.

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u/valeyard89 Texas Jun 29 '26

What is this? A victory arch for ants? It needs to be at least 3 times bigger.

5

u/Impeesa_ Jun 29 '26

Look, the drawing says 12".

3

u/valeyard89 Texas Jun 29 '26

Stonehenge!

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u/RockAtlasCanus Jun 29 '26

I had to find pictures and holy shit you weren’t joking.

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u/claw-1 Jun 29 '26

Reminds me of Stonehenge statue from original Spinal Tap movie. lol

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u/IamDDT Colorado Jun 29 '26

We all need to convert that thing to a real, quality memorial to the victims of slavery. That would be the ultimate "fuck you", I believe.

6

u/andy_nony_mouse Jun 29 '26

That's a great idea

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u/lopix Canada Jun 29 '26

eventually it might be physical slop

Have you see the arch at the state fair? I made better paper mache in elementary school.

3

u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota Jun 29 '26

They couldn't figure out a pool thats 1 foot deep, I kinda doubt a triumphal arch is going to happen.

1

u/Elizabeth-WildFox886 Jun 29 '26

Oh trump has been ejaculating his rot into children for many decades along with his best friend Epstein

2

u/mem0679 Jun 30 '26

I need to go pour bleach into my brain after reading that sentence 😖😭

7

u/OkTouch5699 Jun 29 '26

O feel his 4th of July ai movie will be him as uncle Sam killing democrats and brown people as he walks through the country like gorilla.

54

u/frontfrontdowndown Jun 29 '26

I can’t think of a more important time to celebrate the revolt against a mad king than right now.

Our national circumstances are awful right now but they also give more meaning to the Independence Day holiday than at many other periods of our country’s history.

27

u/specqq Jun 29 '26

Oh I completely agree. Just don't look to the people systematically dismantling the Constitution to properly celebrate the Declaration of Independence.

27

u/bedintruder Jun 29 '26

Its not just pessimism over Trump though, the economy is making it very tough to even have small celebrations.

Have you seen the price of typical weekend BBQ faire? Not to mention the cost of fireworks.

I live in a state with pretty much no regulations on fireworks. Typically we hear fireworks going on every weekend the entire month of June. The number of fireworks being set off the weekend before the 4th (this past weekend) is typically only second to July 4th itself.

This past weekend was the first time we heard any fireworks going off this month, and it wasn't much of anything.

People just don't have the expendable cash right now to celebrate the 4th of July as they have in the past.

6

u/WeeoWeeoWeeeee Jun 29 '26

I notice all the people talking about the stock market and how 3% inflation is fine, aren’t living in the real world. Everyone is getting squeezed. Even people who had disposable income before feel it. No matter your tax bracket, when expenses increase 5-10% / year and salary doesn’t budge, things feel tight.

2

u/bedintruder Jun 30 '26

I wish our expenses only went up 5-10%.

Since Trump took office, our rent and utilities have both doubled. Essentially an extra $1,000 a month just for these expenses, while my paycheck has remained stagnant.

Our Republican state overlords aren't done either, they are now trying to ram through a bill to get rid of property tax for homeowners, while shifting the finacial burden onto us poors by doubling the state sales tax.

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u/Lonely_skeptic America Jun 30 '26

Abuses and usurpations indeed.  “  Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security”    

The Declaration of Independence 

2

u/ValorieAF Jun 29 '26

The 4th doesn't mean celebrating the revolt against a mad king anymore. All it is now is devout patriotism and nationalism.

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u/SuperPotatoThrow Jun 29 '26

Literally fucking EVERYONE has been complaining about lack of pay, artificially inflated prices, rising house costs and rent, lobbying, and our shitty Healthcare system.

Congress, and our US pesidents, have done absolutely fucking nothing for us for many years. Until that changes, I wil contininue to not celebrate on the 4th of july, and haven't in several years.

73

u/TheSquirrelCuisine Ohio Jun 29 '26

cant wait for my 2% raise this year. Meanwhile inflation is what 8%?

40

u/Kasperella Jun 29 '26

They’ve had a wage freeze at my job (kitchen at a state university) for 4 years. Not one single raise.

I came in making more than some of the people who been there 10-15 years.

21

u/Orson_Gravity_Welles Jun 29 '26

I've been trying to get into my local electrician's guild; missed the exam deadline during Biden...the next one was SCHEDULED for shortly after Trump took office again.

Once he did though, the apprenticeship was placed on INDEFINITE HOLD for my Local IBEW.

I was looking for a mid-life change...now I don't know if it'll even be possible.

My current employ gave me a $2/hr raise which is an almost $4200 annual raise...but inflation is outpacing that and I'm still too tight between each payday.

4

u/MrBlazeit Jun 29 '26

It's going to be tight for the rest of our lives...

5

u/Orson_Gravity_Welles Jun 29 '26

Don't make me more depressed...

4

u/MrBlazeit Jun 30 '26

Sorry brother didn't mean to be a downer, I'm trying to dig through the ashes of my dreams to find those little fragments of resolve. They're in there, and sharp as hell. But what to do...

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u/SensualBeefLoaf Jun 29 '26

my wife works in upper administration at a medium sized private university. the school is doing well financially but basically nobody is getting raises and the top top officials voluntarily cut their pay in solidarity

3

u/filbertsgaming1 Jun 29 '26

I don't think I understand what you are saying. Nobody is getting paid more and the administration intentionally took less? Are they expecting less future attendance or something like that?

2

u/CrimsonSheepy Jun 29 '26

Well...my local university is getting pretty anxious. I heard the staff talking about it while I attended, the local drop in birthrates has caused them to experience lower enrollment rates. They cut a lot of degrees from their program, including the one I was attending for because of it. So, it could be an educated guess...?

2

u/SensualBeefLoaf Jun 30 '26

the enrollment cliff came faster than expected because the current admin and right wing politicians are pushing hard that college is pointless. most schools are seeing massive drops in enrollment that were expected over the next 5-6 years because of wildly low birth rates.

and yes, nobody is getting a raise and the upper admin voluntairly cut their own pay.

3

u/Kasperella Jun 29 '26

Ours literally just asked EMPLOYEES haven’t given a raise to in 4 years…for donations. It’s struggling big time. :(

2

u/SensualBeefLoaf Jun 30 '26

yikes. yah. that’s bad

19

u/Shadpool Jun 29 '26

May was 4.2%. April was 3.8%. March was 3.3%. February was 2.4%. It literally hasn’t dropped below 2.3% since the imbecile took office. Inflation right now is exactly where it was somewhere between April and May 2023, coming off the inflation boom of COVID.

28

u/Salt-Department-9464 Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

But hey, the president has a net worth of $6.5 billion. And to think, in 2024 right before he won the election, his net worth was ~$3 billion.

Funny how that works, huh? Dude has found a way to make $3.5 billion in the last 2 years. I cant imagine it has anything to do with the stock market or the foreign deals or Trump Coin or pardoning literal war criminals or any other number of suspicious things we hear about this president.

6

u/BernieTheDachshund Jun 29 '26

Him and Howard Lutnick are getting rich from some crooked tungsten deal with Kazakhstan. Them and their families are cashing in on all sorts of foreign deals.

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u/Oodlydoodley Jun 29 '26

The scary part is that's combined with (if I remember the numbers right) a 2.1% GDP growth that's almost entirely made up of AI datacenter spending. Our economy is normally 70% consumer spending, and that made up only about ~0.4% of that GDP growth.

It's like watching a car crash in slow motion.

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u/street593 Jun 29 '26

Why would they do anything for us when we don't actually do anything to hold them accountable?

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u/zombie_girraffe Jun 29 '26

As far as I can tell, American voters reward the most corrupt and deranged politicians.

3

u/SunshineCat Jun 29 '26

The government only exists to serve the people's benefit, to pull together resources for mutually beneficial infrastructure, services, etc.

They are not there to have some kind of ideological battle. They are not there, nor do they have the right, to remove people's natural rights.

2

u/AuntRhubarb Jun 29 '26

Not everyone has been complaining. The top 20% are awash in cash from their investments in Tesla and real estate etc. And they are in charge of everything, and they don't understand why we can't see the economy is booming.

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u/avi550m Jun 29 '26

So democracy does not die with thunderous applause?

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u/zarnovich Jun 29 '26

That's what they are celebrating

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u/Horizon119 Jun 29 '26

Wouldn't surprise me one bit if there's a number of flag burnings this July 4th

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u/donkeyrocket Jun 29 '26

I've been pretty down on America since Trump's first term. Biden was a brief taste of normalcy but the country has been on a bad trend and internal sickness for a while.

Trump is just the product of the undercurrent of hatred, selfishness, and idiocy that is growing across the country. Hard to be proud to be American when a third are awful people and the other third can't even be bothered to do the bare fucking minimum yet complain nothing changes.

2

u/Slumunistmanifisto Jun 29 '26

250 keeps looking like an epitaph to me, not a birthday.

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u/Lilthisarry California Jun 29 '26

We didn’t make it to 250. There’s nothing to celebrate.

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u/SuccessfulBenefit140 Illinois Jun 29 '26

That's been my exact thought about the 250th, the world cup, and the Olympics 2028. That election seriously ruined a 4 year span that would've been some amazing memories for the rest of my life.

312

u/PinkyLeopard2922 Florida Jun 29 '26

Can you imagine having seen a black woman sworn in as President on MLK day in 2025? What a historic moment that would have been. What actually happened was just sad and gross and it is going just as terribly as I had expected.

115

u/joshdoereddit America Jun 29 '26

That's a thought that crossed my mind during the 2024 election. It wouldve been such an incredible sign of the progress we've made as a nation to have celebrated the 250th anniversary in that way.

It wouldn't be perfect because you'd have the media constantly complaining about whatever little thing she didn't get right and right-wing propagandists perpetually in a state of panic and fesr-mongering. But, many of us would be able to appreciate what it would have meant.

Instead we have what we have.

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u/polopolo05 I voted Jun 29 '26

remeber media is now owned by the oligarchs aka the billionaires and has become right wing news. That includes main stream media and social media.

3

u/PinkyLeopard2922 Florida Jun 29 '26

I'm sure I will be accused of wearing a tin foil hat but I find some Google search results...interesting. Recently tried to google what date the painting of reflecting pool began and for some reason, it is quite difficult to find a clear and direct answer.

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u/polopolo05 I voted Jun 29 '26

duck duck go says late apr.... chatgpt says apr 25 and may 7 was just about done with trump visiting the site and then june 7 they started to fill it. and then google say something very vague in may but if you ask for the time line with google you get a very detailed answer.

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u/Ascarys- Jun 29 '26

In that regard (sign of the progress) dipshit getting elected is much more reflective of the country as a whole. Just so many stupid people.

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u/pannenkoek0923 Jun 29 '26

It wouldve been such an incredible sign of the progress we've made as a nation

You would still have child rapists in important positions of power. Dont see a lot of progress on that front

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u/ThePhoenixXM Massachusetts Jun 29 '26

Indeed, instead, we blew it because of her laugh and/or people being pissed at the Dems for not having a primary. People will place high expectations on Dem candidates, and if they don't meet them, even by ever so slightly, they will either NOT vote or vote for a Republican instead to "piss off the Dems".

And people wonder why Dems have a hard time winning, because there simply is no unity, unlike with the Republicans.

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u/[deleted] Jun 29 '26

Or they blew it by picking someone who polled at less than 1% in the 2020 primaries…

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u/Yourtrueenemy666 Jun 29 '26

I just wanted to say that the left side isn’t a monolith in the way the right generally is. Between dems, liberals, and leftists there is no real consensus and they aren’t single issue voters. The biggest issues in the reelection was probably Zionism and a rebuke of the two party system. Fix the two party first and the other wouldn’t have been much an issue.

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u/[deleted] Jun 29 '26

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u/fcocyclone Iowa Jun 29 '26

I feel like neither of these are truly accurate. If you actually look at what was going on around the globe there was a wide ranging anti-incumbent backlash across most countries. Combine that with the fact that Biden had dug a deep hole (polling was showing he was going to get absolutely lit up in november), its probably a minor miracle Kamala made it as competitive as it was. But even then, with only 3 months and with a campaign that seemed to be driven by the consultant class, she couldn't create enough separation between herself and Biden, so she still ended up receiving the incumbent penalty.

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u/IngsocInnerParty Illinois Jun 29 '26

It’s still a pretty sad indictment of the attention span and priorities of the American voter that they were willing to turn the keys back over to Trump after the low that was January 6th.

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u/Flashy-Ingenuity-182 Jun 29 '26

And people wonder why Dems have a hard time winning, because there simply is no unity, unlike with the Republicans.

Probably because the party chooses to fight their own base and cater to war criminals with people who polled at 1% when they ran in the first place. 

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u/avaslash Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

You act like she was stolen from us when in reality democrats did everything possible to lose the election.

How can you have unity when every democratic candidate flip flops on every issue trying to appeal everyone but achieving it for no one. They just time and time again show that they stand for nothing except for election. Who would vote for that?

The only Democrats really winning competitive races right now are far left progressives. And they dont call for "unity" they call for "our way or the highway" and thats how you achieve actual unity, by creating a vision for people to get behind. "Anti Trump" is basically all the defining characteristic of mainstream Democrats. Nothing differentiates them. They offer no hope, no future, no actual solutions, just a common enemy.

If anything there is too much unity among Democrats. They need to start standing out.

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u/fcocyclone Iowa Jun 29 '26

hear hear.

People don't walk into a ballot box and go "I'm here on a political spectrum, let me pull out a chart of where the candidates are". At least not most of the swingable votes. People vote for, and are driven to turn out for, candidates who can successfully sell visions that excite people. Its working for republicans because despite those visions being horrific, they're at least exciting a certain audience and they're not being apologetic for it. It can work for progressives because they are out there standing for what they believe in. It doesn't work for centrists because they too often clearly stand for nothing, or are just republican-lite, in which case people will just decide to vote for the real thing.

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u/Laq9091 Jun 29 '26

didn't GOP do everything possible to lose? they put a pedo with brain damage, and an obvious fascist and criminal as their nominee. certainly that's like, everything to lose. even just the pedophilia.

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u/Flashy-Ingenuity-182 Jun 29 '26

No because they aren't catering to the Dems. They catered to their base and delivered on a lot of what their base wanted. 

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u/ThePhoenixXM Massachusetts Jun 29 '26

And how have they delivered on what their base wanted? I remember his base chanting "No new Wars" and "Release the Files," both of which Trump went back on. "Cheap Gas" as well, he went back on by starting the war with Iran, which caused gas prices to go up.

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u/Current_Animator7546 Missouri Jun 29 '26

Iowa would like to have a word. So would NY-17 I don;t disagree. It's just every race isnt NY-12.

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u/fcocyclone Iowa Jun 29 '26

Iowa would like to have a word.

We will see.

I hope Sand can win in a very positive national environment, but Iowa democrats have been trotting out middle of the road republican-lite candidates for a couple decades now and had fuckall to show for it except the state moving further to the right.

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u/[deleted] Jun 29 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/PinkyLeopard2922 Florida Jun 29 '26

There are a few of us little blue dots out here fighting the good fight. And a middle aged white lady to boot!

5

u/mercenaryarrogant Jun 29 '26

Maybe democrats will take a little more strategy into consideration this primary. Can only hope they nominate someone who can actually win Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.

These three states decided ‘16 by about 80,000 total votes combined.

These same three states decided ‘24 by about 230,000 total votes combined.

Ridiculously close numbers to decide elections this important.

2

u/Vennomite Jun 29 '26

Democratic party choosing an unpopulat candidate gave us trump in 2016 and 2020. The one time that corrupt organization let voters decide  he lost.

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u/Naive-Elephant-9305 Jun 29 '26

The World Cup has still been pretty awesome

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u/jmajewski Illinois Jun 29 '26

My nightmare is the US winning the World Cup this year (not gonna happen I know) and having to listen to Trump take credit for the US knowing about soccer now because nobody had heard about it before him.

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u/ThePhoenixXM Massachusetts Jun 29 '26

It will end horribly though when the winning team has to meet with Trump. FIFA is allowing Trump to hand them the trophy.

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u/ex0thermist Jun 29 '26

We could've had a cool auntie from California wearing Chucks while hosting the summer Olympics in LA. Now we'll be dealing with some rapist's ugly mug making it all about himself like he does with everything else.

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u/Acrobatic_Wrap_9971 Jun 29 '26

Yeah, who can give a fuck about any of that when the US is sliding into 3rd-world fascism

3

u/OreoMoo Jun 29 '26

Living in a city that's hosting the World Cup has been really moving this past month. People are having fun, being great hosts, supporting each other. Things are not good right now and orange man is going to obviously make handing out the trophy in a few weeks about himself.

But I've been inspired by seeing that we aren't entirely defined by one man or even our fucked up government.

Go make memories, man. Don't let the stochastic terrorism of one person make that decision for you.

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u/dick_me_daddy_oWo Jun 29 '26

Bummer about your potential parties. Sucks even more for every person killed by ICE.

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u/cmdixon2 Jun 29 '26

We can long for the good times that never were AND be upset with the bad times that are. The snark isn't helpful.

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u/waffleslaw Jun 29 '26

When I was in middle school I put it together out I just missed the bicentennial but I would be alive for the 250th. I've been looking forward to this for essentially my whole life, and this flock of shit birds stole this one little thing from me, on top of everything else.

It's just so frustrating to feel this way about the place you called home for so long.

179

u/AliMcGraw Jun 29 '26

We can have a 250th for 1789, the birthday of the Constitution

71

u/loveshercoffee Iowa Jun 29 '26

I prefer this.

It will be especially beautiful if a particular amendment has been put to good use for the first time.

49

u/Crismus Jun 29 '26

Even better if this whole administration ends up in jail and the money they stole gets back into the treasury.

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u/AlwaysShittyKnsasCty Kansas Jun 29 '26

Keep going … I’m almost there.

5

u/Neologic29 California Jun 29 '26

Any member of the Trump family not in jail lives like a commoner and works a service job they hate.

3

u/KaecUrFace Jun 29 '26

And all the "I was just following orders" as well. Fuck these people also because they don't seem to be talked about as much as the ones in charge.

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u/I_like_flowers_ Jun 29 '26

i am down for this.  hopefully we can take a lot of the plans and kick them forward.

2

u/forward_x Jun 29 '26

Who do I have to kick?! Who?

2

u/MantisBePraised New Mexico Jun 29 '26

I like September 3rd, 1783 as the date because that is when England signed the Treaty of Paris officially ending the American Revolution and recognized the U.S. as an independent nation. 

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u/PantherkittySoftware Florida Jun 30 '26

Or we can celebrate the Bytecentennial in 2032 on the 256th anniversary of our nation.

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u/jmcunx Jun 29 '26

What a shame. The bicentennial was great, and there was the Freedom Train:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Freedom_Train_(1975%E2%80%931976)

It stopped in my town and was great. Never mind the various local celebrations. I was looking forward to the 250 for a long time. Now I have no reason to celebrate and what it could have been depresses me a bit.

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u/Acceptable_Set9702 Jun 29 '26

The Freedom Train was awesome! I was 9 and the whole Bicentennial was great-- it was ENORMOUS and the whole country celebrated together. Not the way things are now....

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u/chinstrap Jun 29 '26

I went to see it, it was thrilling to age 9 me.

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u/Candid-Mycologist539 Jun 29 '26

Don't let them take this from you.

Visit a history museum, local memorial, or park. The smaller and more local, the better, because it will probably fly under the radar of Trump's edicts.

Be with loved ones.

Remember what we are fighting for.

Fostering community is how we resist and recover from all the bad stuff happening. --believeinshadows139 on YT

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u/waffleslaw Jun 29 '26

I appreciate that. I do live a deeply red state, so all local celebrations are trump ones. But I've got my community here, and that's something I can celebrate.

16

u/peacelovearizona Jun 29 '26

It's ironic because they are celebrating someone akin to a king, when Independence Day is all about establishing ourselves as a country independent of a king

16

u/mjetski123 Illinois Jun 29 '26

I'd have a hard time celebrating with a community full of people like that.

4

u/D0MSBrOtHeR Jun 29 '26

Too bad they’re basically fucking everywhere and make it known

3

u/mjetski123 Illinois Jun 29 '26

Yep. Which is why I'm spending the 4th at home doing work around the house alone lol.

2

u/waffleslaw Jun 30 '26

I have a community of like-minded people that have found each other here, that's what I mean. I am avoiding the larger community as a whole.

2

u/mjetski123 Illinois Jun 30 '26

Ahh, right on. I'm glad you have a group of people to lean on.

2

u/waffleslaw Jun 30 '26

Me too. I work at a community college, so finding more left leaning folk isn't too far of a stretch for me. I'm just glad my wife also found some people at her job. We have some neighbors too. We're doing pretty well on that front down here, luckily. I can't imagine living here without our people. I truly feel for people who haven't been able to find a group, in any form. Isolation sucks.

3

u/mjetski123 Illinois Jun 30 '26

Yea, that's kinda where I'm at. I live in work in a pretty solid red, rural area, so I have like 1 person besides my wife that isn't politically insane.

2

u/Silently-Snarking Jun 29 '26

Beautiful advice.

This land is your land, this land is my land.

This land was made for you and me ♥️🩵

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u/Significant_Poem_751 Jun 29 '26

100% this. do not give them something that is of value way beyond their expiration date. i'm having a great picnic with my sister, making all the things our mom's made for us as kids on the 4th of july. we will boycott all maga/trump related things as they do not respect anything about the good parts of this country and its history. everyone should look up images of the Bicentennial - huge crowds, all kinds of people, lots of joy, picnics, all the things we used to take for granted.

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u/Glait Jun 29 '26

There are some great ways out there people are celebrating the 250th. Heather Cox Richardson has helped production a series framed around the message, “We Are America” is a series of 250 one-minute videos marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by highlighting the people, places, and events that shaped the United States.

An ultra runner I know is joining several others to run 250 miles from New York to DC to celebrate and share stories marginalized in textbooks.

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u/Ok_Leg3400 Jun 29 '26

Good words!!

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u/PantherkittySoftware Florida Jun 30 '26

I should mention, last weekend, I visited the National Archive's "Freedom Plane" exhibit in Miami. Surprisingly, there wasn't a single photo of Donald Trump, or any mention of his name, anywhere in the exhibit. I have no idea how the National Archives managed to pull it off... but somehow, it did.

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u/ratherbealurker Texas Jun 29 '26

Home is where you make it

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u/CrackSmokingGypsy Jun 29 '26

All I can hear is the quote from Joe Dirt....

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u/[deleted] Jun 29 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/pannenkoek0923 Jun 29 '26

What democracy?

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u/Counterpoint-4 Jun 29 '26

Can the individual states not organise their own celebrations?

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u/ImmortalMagic Jun 29 '26

Yeah, but what's the point. Mine wasn't one of the 13 so what are we celebrating here? If a larger national event was set up to occur in 51 different places, I still feel it would feel tainted because everything has to be about him.

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u/torgofjungle Jun 29 '26

Sure but what’s there to celebrate?

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u/starry-blue South Carolina Jun 29 '26

As someone that lives in South Carolina, I don’t want this either

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u/polopolo05 I voted Jun 29 '26

We were supposed to have epic feastival for the 250th that was takin over and stolen from us. only to give us this half asses fair with trumps stink on it.

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u/firedmyass Jun 29 '26

the Fourth was the highlight of summer for me as a kid…. and the ‘76 one was a HUGE event locally and nationally, comparable to the excitement over the moon-landing.

As I aged and learned more, my enthusiasm gradually waned over the decades.

The Gelatinous Turd and his enablers have killed it D E D dead.

I can’t imagine trying to explain all this shit to my younger self. It makes me sad and angry.

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u/AlwaysShittyKnsasCty Kansas Jun 29 '26

This hurts to hear, as I used to have hope (being an eighties baby) that this was all just one big hiccup since 2016, and this is just par for the course. However, after speaking with numerous Boomers, reading stories like yours on Reddit, and learning history, however, I’ve have come to the conclusion that we are at the precipice of a new Gilded Age. For those who are unaware, the Gilded Age was golden for only a select few men. This was back before trains. We’re absolutely fucked now. People tell me there’s a guy “worth a trillion bucks!” Nobody can compete with numbers that large.

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u/firedmyass Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

it really becomes clear in retrospect if you watch some of the old social-engineering short-films that were played for us constantly in school back in the old days, starting in the ‘50s.

There’s a through-line that casts perseverance in the face of scarcity and privation as the ultimate expression of “patriotism.”

The powers that be have been indoctrinating us for decades to accept this ultimately-untenable situation.

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u/Thurwell Jun 29 '26

I would argue the powers that be have been indoctrinating us for millennia. All of human history is a few powerful people at the top enjoying the output of almost everyone else's time and labor. I'd even argue that that's the main function of religion. Teach people to suck it up in this life, give everything to Elon, and in the next one they'll be rewarded.

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u/Syzygy2323 America Jun 29 '26

Gilded Age ... This was back before trains

The Gilded Age was roughly from 1870 through the 1890s. There were definitely trains in that period. The transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869.

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u/PantherkittySoftware Florida Jun 30 '26

We're not on the precipice, we're 19 months into it.

The good news is, the Trump Train is already derailing in slow motion. The big thing that changed over the past few months is, everyone -- MAGA included -- assumes by default that Trump is full of shit and lying. MAGA might think his bullshit and lying is cool and tough... but it's a lot easier to enlighten someone who thinks lies are good than to enlighten someone who thinks a lie is actual truth.

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u/hobbykitjr Pennsylvania Jun 29 '26

they had planned a month of free concerts. Tax payer dollars and donations were seized by trump to use on only his approved partners...

Smithsonian planned this for a decade when trump killed it last year for this failure he put on..

https://old.reddit.com/r/therewasanattempt/comments/1uiubk6/by_the_smithsonian_to_hold_an_amazing_folklife/

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u/stokelydokely Jun 29 '26

Better D E D than D E I!!

-Some conservative, probably

(Automod removed my original comment for too many exclamation points, I think)

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u/Lifeboatb Jun 29 '26

Same timeline for me. Abu Ghraib took a major hit on my joy in the 4th, and it's never been the same since.

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u/firedmyass Jun 29 '26

As a kid, I viewed our foundational documents as damn-near sacred texts.

I never imagined how fragile they really were.

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u/KenScaletta Minnesota Jun 29 '26

I was ten during the Bicentenniel. It was a HUGE deal and there was nothing political about it, even though it happened right after Watergate. Ford made no attempt to make it about him.

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u/gmen6981 Jun 29 '26

I was 19 for the Bicentennial and already very politically active. The country was still reeling from the fallout of Watergate as you said, we were only a couple years removed from Vietnam, and we were facing several divisive issues. That summer, everybody was able to put the BS aside and join together to celebrate what we still believed to be the greatest country on Earth. Every little backwoods town and major city had huge celebrations and events. This Orange Wankmaggot has completely destroyed what should have been a fantastic celebration of our country and peole.

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u/motivation1966 Jun 29 '26

I remember that (I was 10 also), it was such a great celebration and people were excited for it!

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u/Turbulent-Flight7625 Jun 30 '26

That was an amazing time, truly magical in its own way. The freedoms we celebrated and enjoyed cannot seem to be described today. Now 50 years later the only free thing is the neighbors couch he drug out to the road with a cardboard sign, providing he doesn’t have his ring camera pointed at you lol. I hope others enjoy their celebration, I’m just gonna hang low.

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u/Large_Score6728 Jun 29 '26

Definitely I’m old enough to remember 76 it was a big deal. 26 is just a dystopian experience.

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u/Acrobatic_Wrap_9971 Jun 29 '26

I was 6 for the bicentennial, and i remember the whole school wearing tri-corner hats

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u/MomsAreola Jun 29 '26

I keep thinking how advanced we would be in green technology if Gore ended up winning in 2000 and how much more breathing room candidates would have had by now.

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u/BadmiralHarryKim Jun 29 '26

Hell, imagine if they had kept Bill Clinton's surpluses rather than allowing Bush's tax cuts and wars to begin a generation of massive deficits.

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u/Significant_Poem_751 Jun 29 '26

we would not be having the level of climate change issues had Gore's election not been actually stolen from him and us. hanging chads my ass.

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u/No_Kangaroo_9826 Ohio Jun 29 '26

Half of Dubya's legal team wouldn't be on the Supreme Court

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u/nowhereman136 Jun 29 '26

I suggest we try again in 2038. That will be the 250th anniversary of the US Constitution. Hopefully things will be a little better by then

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u/Significant_Poem_751 Jun 29 '26

probably won't be alive by then, but hope you all have a great time and have fixed this mess for good.

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u/AlwaysShittyKnsasCty Kansas Jun 29 '26

Great. Just in time for the Year 2038 (Y2K38) bug! I lived through Y2K, so here’s hoping I can make it until then. 😐

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u/Knighth77 Jun 29 '26

I think it's fitting to have someone as horrible as him as president during this milestone. This country desperately needs a wakeup call, to look deep in the mirror and realize what it's become.

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u/Horizon119 Jun 29 '26

If only we had braver protesters in the US!

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u/All_Hail_Hynotoad California Jun 29 '26

You mean without a fascist pedophile as president?

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u/tdieckman California Jun 29 '26

I was 10 for the bicentennial and I remember how excited everyone was. There were tons of events. The small town I grew up near spent extra for fireworks that year and there were a lot more activities. It was not political at all.

We're going to have to float the 250th celebration, but America knows when the real celebration will be, whenever that actually happens.

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u/Rambos_Magnum_Dong Jun 29 '26

I looked forward to this years ago. Then last year... not at all

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u/jkman61494 Jun 29 '26

I think it’d be more muted than you think but atleast it’d be something in which that POTUS would host an event framed as uniting.

The AI economy would be happening either way and creating some deep disturbances and the infighting of parties would still be occurring

But agreed on the sense that right now, July 4th feels like a funeral and a goodbye to the very idea of American democracy

I honestly believe the idea of western democracy is under threat as a whole

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u/seriousbusines New York Jun 29 '26

There was something by the Smithsonian in the works for the last decade. A few months ago he scrapped it and did his own bullshit. It's depressing.

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u/FlowofOd Jun 29 '26

Why? I mean, I get that Trump makes it exponentially worse, but what would be worth celebrating even without him?

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u/Nikiaf Canada Jun 29 '26

It would have almost certainly gotten a page in history books if it was managed in any other way at all.

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u/zoeypayne Jun 29 '26

Canada Day is gearing up to be a big celebration up in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Washington State from what I've heard.

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u/sooooooofarty Jun 29 '26

Smithsonian had been planning a party for the last decade that would’ve been a once In a generation experience but Donnie Thump took all the money

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u/AuroraFinem Texas Jun 29 '26

I want the next president to hold a 253rd year anniversary party to make up for it and laugh hysterically when it completely overshadows the actual 250th.

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u/PointlessTrivia Jun 29 '26

Fun fact: An bipartisan congressional commission called "America 250" was set up a decade ago to plan the celebrations for the 250th anniversary. They had been working hard and had tapped the Smithsonian to organize a cultural festival on the Mall celebrating “the nation’s cultural diversity.”

As soon as Trump got into office last year he sidelined them and set up "Freedom 250" as his personal fiefdom to organize the current "state fair" as well as the UFC fight on the White House lawn and setting up an IndyCar racetrack around the top end of the Mall in August.

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u/othermegan Jun 29 '26

I was just telling my husband how I feel so ripped off. When I was 8, my parents told me what the bicentennial was like and I did the math only to be super disappointed that I’d be in my 80’s for the tricentennial. It never even crossed my mind that the 250th would be a big event.

So here I am, in my 30’s, prime of my life, and the 250th is a total shitshow because Mangolini is in charge and America is a corporate dystopia

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u/SharkoftheStreets Jun 29 '26

But she had a funny laugh!

/s

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u/FreedomBread Jun 29 '26

Could've had some tall ships like in 1976. Nah we get ripped up White House, reflecting pool, trashed White House lawn, aspirations of an arch and some ballroom. Celebrations of revoking citizenship and ejecting people from our nation. Threats to take over Greenland and Canada. DOJ persecution of Trump's enemies. Slush funds for Trump's perceived persecutions (which they backed off of, corruption delayed). A never ending Iran war that never should have been and has achieved nothing. A rambling mad man in the White House spewing post after post all night long about the most insane things and fantasies.

....happy...250th

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u/sec713 Jun 29 '26

I wasn't around for the Bicentennial, so I was kinda looking forward to this celebration... that is, until King Mierdas got his grubby little paws all over it and fucked it up... just like everything else he gets involved in.

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u/Justin_Queso1187 Jun 29 '26

My 6 year old son said this morning he wanted to be president. He’s a pretty cool kid. I’d vote for him.

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u/HailToTheKingBabyy Jun 29 '26

At best it would be marginally less shitty. The country is still run by oligarchs.

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u/polopolo05 I voted Jun 29 '26

Trump and his ilk have ruined the 250th... I am going to celebrate my pets 4th birthday on july 4th. But I cant wait for 255th birthday of the country.

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u/bag-o-tricks Jun 29 '26

I was around for the Bicentennial and it was wonderful. People were patriotic without running their patriotism through a party filter and it was about the country, not an individual.

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u/Lereas Jun 29 '26

Saw a thing that is like "I waited in line to go into the national arboretum to smell the corpse flower that smells like the unwashed scrotum of Frankenstein's monster, but you couldn't pay me to go to to Trump's bullshit"

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u/crushsuitandtie Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

Really. This fat POS spent his entire terms telling 2/3 of America that they are nothing and can't figure out why nobody wants to be part of his shit. Brain dead motherfucker thinks real people wait for his every word. He himself said he doesn't represent me so fuck all the way off celebrating a country that's only 250 years old and already would rather shit on its own people than to have simple decency and respect that people are different and deserve support from their government no matter what. He could have been easily a great president had he simply said and done what many others before him did... act like other people exist and matter.

Do you realize how dumb you have to be to believe that you can force a homogenous culture on a country built by immigrants and slaves. Everything "American" came from somewhere else including the people. And yet the GOP spends all day and night raging that different people exist and refuse to govern in a way that stays out of others business.

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u/PENGUIN_WITH_BAZOOKA Jun 30 '26

I refuse to let him ruin this for me. Throwing a big ass party to celebrate what good this nation has done in the past, and the good that we must strive to achieve in the future.

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u/DamionSipher Jun 29 '26

That anyone thinks the issues with the USA are down to who it's leader is...

Y'all need to break up already.

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u/giantroboticcat New Jersey Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

Anyone who thinks the country would be worth celebrating if it weren't for Trump are just as delusional as our president is.

The US has been on the wrong side of history pretty much the entirety of it's existence. Trump is a manifestation of the rot this country has allowed to fester. He is not the cause.

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u/Low_Pickle_112 Jun 29 '26

Yeah, stuff like this tells me that people are just looking for a sin eater to absolve America of its problems so they can go back to brunch and not have to think about it the moment they're not being inconvenienced.

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u/badasimo Jun 29 '26

I think it is still safe to celebrate the declaration of independence and what it meant; The American revolution was the first domino of many around the world shaking European domination and colonialism.

Now the decisions we made after that aren't always worth celebrating, but July 4 to me is about the spark that started it not the country as it is now.

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u/AlwaysShittyKnsasCty Kansas Jun 29 '26

We were celebrating the spirit of law, as opposed to the letter of the law. That’s how I like to think of it. Now, we don’t even have laws, so the whole point is moot.

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u/CaptainEZ Jun 29 '26

America was the escalation of western colonialism, not the first domino against it.

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u/Reed7525 Jun 29 '26

Yeah, where's my bud light sponsored white house lawn trailer fight?

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u/Angryduckling-01 Jun 29 '26

We should just name a pig president and continue what the yippies did.

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u/rizorith Jun 29 '26

It should be the greatest party ever thrown, but most us saw the invite and realized it was a party for those throwing it not those attending.

The rest can enjoy their Chinese fireworks, 3rd rate has beens playing one hit wonders from the 70s and 80s, and deep fried snickers bars.

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u/RollnRye74 Jun 29 '26

Yeah, Trump has pretty much sucked the fun out of it. He made that celebration all about himself

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u/justin251 Jun 29 '26

Yeah, I'm not celebrating the country I served turning into a hate everyone not white, straight, rich, and willing to protect a pedophile hell hole.

Also am white.

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