America’s 250th birthday inspired one helluva party, from a national outpouring of flag-waving patriots to a glorious parade of tall ships in New York Harbor.
From sea to shining sea, the festivities were bolstered by a timely and unprecedented World Cup pandemonium, with the excitement multiplied by tens of thousands of global visitors cheering on their teams.
Alas, the morning-after headache is a doozy.
Our national soccer team crashed and burned on its path to glory and the return of politics-as-usual marks a dramatic comedown from the celebratory highs of the long and very special weekend.
Before the excitement is forgotten, decency compels us to remember the many expressions of joyful pride and what they tell us about our grand nation, and its unique contribution to the entire human race.
The vast majority of Americans, to the chagrin of the political left and their media handmaidens, do indeed love their country.
They are deeply proud, and not at all ashamed, of how we got to the top of the heap and how we stay there.
A personal favorite involved the parade of tall ships and the expressions of genuine affection they conveyed from long-term allies on our special birthday.
Watching the harbor events on NBC News, my guard was up for any hints of the legacy media’s habit of lapsing into anti-Americanism.
Journos play it straight
Happily, I detected none and was grateful that the network’s anchors and reporters appeared to be sharing in the joy of the hot but glorious day.
They were fully engaged in what American independence has meant at home and around the world for 250 years — and what it continues to mean, even in these tense and difficult times.
As embodied by our founding documents and their championing of individual rights and limits on government power, the resulting national greatness has been and remains an inspirational example for people around the world.
One obvious aspect of that shining city on the hill is how our extraordinary military might has been used to spread the blessings of freedom and remove the shackles of oppression around the globe.
We also see it in our remarkable standard of living that is propelled by private enterprise, which, when combined with restrained government power, has turned an 18th century event into a living, aspirational example for billions of people.
The celebrations were thus a pleasant diversion from the strained relations America is experiencing with some of those same nations, mostly over the war in Iran.
Additionally, the domestic partisan animosity that is directed at President Trump on a daily basis also took a holiday respite.
Days that were jammed with over-the-top patriotic activities highlighted the fact that he was the right president for this special moment.
His unabashed American boosterism is genuine, as is his vision for a grand future, although they can get diluted when he digresses into personal boasting.
But he acted entirely appropriately during the weekend’s numerous events, including his stirring speech at Mount Rushmore.
Predictably, a sour note came from the Associated Press account of the event, which accused him of switching from “soaring rhetoric about American exceptionalism” to “a darkly political speech with warnings about a sinister threat of communism that evoked one of the country’s ugliest chapters.”
Snark from the AP
His sin, to the AP, was to say “communism is a mortal threat to American liberty,” and “the greatest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor or even 9/11.”
The outlet felt compelled to allege that his language “evoked the Red Scare of the 1950s, when alleged communists were persecuted and blacklisted from jobs across America, from Washington to Hollywood.”
The AP also revealed its disdain for all things Trump by saying his remarks fell short of Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, two previous Republican presidents who gave important speeches at the iconic spot.
The snarky coverage ended the reverie and heralded a fresh outbreak of Trump Derangement Syndrome. And this time it wasn’t limited to blue state Dems and their rabid media megaphones.
This time, TDS went fully global.
And it’s still spreading.
It was probably only a matter of time given America’s rattled relations with much of Europe.
But it was impossible to predict that the spark would be a World Cup ruling that suspended one of America’s top players from the crucial soccer match Monday.
Trump, who was instrumental in his first term in making the deal for America to be the major host of the world tournament, did what any American president should have done, but most probably would not have.
In fact, he was far from alone in seeing the ban against star striker Folarin Balogun as excessive, especially considering precedents and the circumstances.
As the president described his phone call to the head of the soccer governing body, he told reporters that he merely asked FIFA President Gianni Infantino for “a review,” because Trump found it excessive to ban a player from participating in the next game.
“It’s one thing to penalize somebody for the game, but how do you penalize them for a game that hasn’t been played yet?” he said.
“It’s very unfair. You can’t do that. So, yes, I asked for a review by FIFA.”
Independent decision
Infantino said after the decision was made that Trump’s call did not affect the lifting of the penalty.
The leftist media wasn’t buying any of it, and showed their stripes with claims such as this one in The Athletic, owned by The New York Times: “A United States defeat against Belgium was probably the political outcome” Infantino wanted.
There they go, mind-reading again.
Most Democrats had the good sense to remain silent, lest they confirm the growing suspicion that they hate Trump more than they love America.
An exception was California US Rep. Sam Liccardo, who objected to Trump even raising the issue with FIFA.
He wrote on social media that “we can’t win this way,” and “I won’t cheer FIFA’s capitulation to power.”
After the ruling, he told Politico “this outcome after this corruption summit between FIFA and Donald Trump accentuates the distaste for many.”
Tellingly, his message echoed the tone of the victors.
Following the 4-1 thrashing of the American squad, Belgium’s team used its X account to send a triumphant message that read, simply, “Overturn this.”
To the victor goes the spoils, and the Belgium players made the point on the field after the game, with a celebration that featured them imitating Trump’s iconic dance in front of their joyous fans.
Dreams of an American soccer championship have been dashed, but more important is that the sights, sounds and joy of the 250th celebration were genuine.
May they spur America’s resolve to continue the fight for the independence of the human spirit for the next 250 years.
