Letter: The 250th belongs to the people, not to Trump

Tony Teso argues the 250th anniversary belongs to workers, immigrants, and dissenters — not any president. File Photo

Tony Teso says no president owns July 4

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the author alone and may not reflect the editorial position of ClarkCountyToday.com

Jonathan Hines argues that “Trump Derangement Syndrome” endangers America’s 250th Birthday celebrations. But that framing gets the problem exactly backward.

The danger is not that citizens object to celebrating the country’s semiquincentennial. The danger is that a national milestone is being converted into a personal branding exercise for Donald Trump, his allies, corporate sponsors, and a very selective version of American history.

No president owns July 4. Not Trump, not Biden, not Obama, not any temporary occupant of the White House. The 250th anniversary should belong to the people: workers, immigrants, Indigenous peoples, enslaved people and their descendants, soldiers, dissenters, abolitionists, civil-rights organizers, women, radicals, conservatives, believers, skeptics, and everyone else whose labor and struggle made the country what it is.

That is why legal challenges and public criticism should not be dismissed as hysteria. In a democracy, public land, national monuments, and official commemorations are not private stage props. When the White House lawn and National Mall are used for corporate spectacle, campaign-style politics, and carefully curated patriotism, citizens have every right to ask who benefits, who pays, who profits, and whose history gets erased.

Hines calls opposition “lawfare.” But courts exist precisely to test whether officials are obeying the law. That is not derangement. That is constitutional government. If a president can wrap any questionable action in red, white, and blue bunting and thereby avoid scrutiny, then patriotism has been reduced to a permission slip for executive overreach.

Nor is it anti-American to insist that the country’s history be told honestly. The American Revolution promised liberty while slavery persisted. The republic expanded democracy while excluding millions. Workers built the country while capital accumulated the wealth. Indigenous peoples were dispossessed in the name of national progress. None of that cancels the American story. It makes the story real.

A mature country does not need mythology. It needs memory.

The 250th anniversary could be an opportunity for serious reflection: What has been won? What remains unfinished? Why does a country founded on liberty still produce such inequality, militarism, racial division, and political alienation? Those are not questions asked by people who hate America. They are questions asked by people who refuse to confuse America with whoever happens to be president.

The phrase “Trump Derangement Syndrome” is not an argument. It is a way to avoid one. It tells citizens that any objection to Trump’s conduct must be irrational by definition. But when a president turns public celebration into personal spectacle, skepticism is not derangement. It is civic responsibility.

Let the country celebrate 250 years. Let people gather, argue, remember, mourn, laugh, sing, protest, and light fireworks. But let us also be clear: national unity cannot be built by demanding silence from everyone who objects to the commercialization and politicization of public history.

The American experiment belongs to the people, not to a president, a party, a fight promoter, or a donor class. The best way to honor July 4 is not to suspend criticism. It is to practice democratic citizenship without asking permission from those in power.

That would be a celebration worth having.

Tony Teso
Camas

Tony Teso says no president owns July 4

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