BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  JUN 20, 2026

I celebrated America’s Bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence−our formal separation from the British Empire−on the South Lawn of the White House, July 4, 1976.

I stood there waiting for the fireworks to begin, and looking up at the second-floor Truman Balcony I saw President Jerry Ford, in whose humble employ I was, First Lady Betty Ford, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, and Second Lady Happy Rockefeller. They were waiting, too, along with other dignitaries. The figures on the Balcony were backlit but still recognizable in the faint yellow glow of twilight.

When the sky did finally come to life with loud booms and patriotic colors shooting out from the ground, there followed oohs and aahs, applause and cheers. There was even a laser projection from the Washington Monument.

For me it was an out-of-body journey into a place and time I thought I would never experience growing up in South Dakota. It was all surreal, accompanied by a burst of patriotism and appreciation for just being there, an eyewitness to history. In 1976, I was fresh out of the corn and bean fields of downstate Illinois, where I was the editor of a daily newspaper.

What a difference 50 years make, as we celebrate our semi quincentennial of independence (that word reminds me of the old adage about writing: never use a big word when a diminutive one will do).

“The United States will observe its 250th birthday in one month,” Cal Thomas wrote in the Washington Times recently, “but it is shaping up more like a memorial service for a lost loved one than a party to celebrate something special. Rather than anticipating a happy occasion, America at 250 is increasingly characterized by anger, name-calling, and scandals.”

There has been a steep decline in national pride in 50 years, down to 58 percent today from 90 percent just after 9/11. Visceral divisiveness has infiltrated politics and infected public trust, civility, and commonality. Only 17 percent of Americans trust the Federal Government to do what is right, well below local government at 67 percent.

Sixty-one percent of Americans think the United States today is not living up to the ideal stated in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal and have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, while 35 percent think the United States today is living up to that ideal.

Trust, pride, unity, patriotism, mutual respect, and so many more of American’s attributes are being drained from the civic psyche and the fault lines begin at the top of the political heap.

President Trump has contributed a great deal to our decline in civility, civil governance, constitutional rule, appropriate political behavior, and personal ethics. He didn’t start it, but he may well finish it. One of the disheartening aspects of our 250th anniversary is how it has been misappropriated by the President to celebrate him. The signs have been evident since the celebration of the Army’s 250th year in 2025, and the inexplicable $60-million cage match fight on the South lawn, both celebrating the presidential birthday, of course.

Add to that a long cavalcade of controversial projects Trump has launched, mostly in Washington D.C., all in the name of the 250th anniversary, but clearly in the embodiment of Donald Trump and the insatiable narcissistic appetite he feeds feverishly. Trump himself says the American Freedom 250’s Great American State Fair scheduled for the Fourth is going to be a fabulous “Trump rally.”

“Compare this dark mood with the July 4,1976 Bicentennial,” Thomas suggested. “Gerald Ford, a modest man, was President. The Vietnam War had officially ended the previous April. Richard Nixon had decamped…over the Watergate affair. American flags were proudly waved, not ceremoniously burned. There was an international parade of tall ships in New York and Boston and much more.”

President Ford manifested the stature of the presidency throughout the celebrations, delivering speeches that lifted spirits, encouraged national unity, and focused on the historic events rather than himself. He helped produce a reversal of public faith in government, despite an unelected presidency that struggled through the end of the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, economic troubles, social unrest, and a country disillusioned by the state of the nation.

Our politics a half-century later has produced a worse case of public disenchantment. It is saturated with a steady stream of bald face lies, distortions, rage, anger, and divisive beliefs and behavior. Our Constitution is pockmarked by abuse. Governance is practiced in defiance of laws, regulations, and traditions. The values that make up the American character are seen to be boring and wimpy. The adversaries of those in power, whether Republican or Democratic are subject to revenge, public ridicule, and most egregious, the weaponization of government agencies against them, in most cases surpassing what we’ve experienced under previous administrations, including Nixon’s.

As Cal Thomas concluded, “Like Elvis, to mix a performance metaphor, it appears unity and patriotism have left the building.”

The dispirit in America on its 250th year of independence is not America, does not reflect the America I grew up with, and it must not be if we are to celebrate our historic experiment in democratic self-rule on its 300th anniversary.

Fortunately, communities across the country on this Fourth will produce terrific, bell-ringing festivities, with fireworks and picnics. In my neighborhood I know flags will fly and red, white, and blue and bunting will float with the breeze from neighborhood fences and porches.

That is the good that will come from the holiday, and hopefully it will be restorative.