Picture this.

July 4, 2026. It’s America’s 250th birthday, and you’re on an incline tram climbing up Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tenn.

The conductor takes the microphone and says, “To the very, very few Americans in here, Happy Independence Day.”

He then adds, “To the rest of you, welcome to the greatest country on the face of the planet, and if you disagree, you can leave.”

Do you laugh, pump your fist and proudly sing a line of Rick Derringer’s “Real American”? Or do you complain to the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority, which operates the ride?

Offended passenger Nathan Scherer chose the latter — along with posting a petty video that has gone viral.

In the end, conductor Jack Peterson was the one told to leave. Fired over a simple love-it-or-leave-it sentiment.

On TikTok, Scherer added the sensational hashtags #xenophobia and #racism, even though there was no suggestion of either. Why does his mind go to such a pessimistic place?

After all, I have heard so many immigrants convey the same message: They do love this country.

You’d be hard-pressed to find one who isn’t grateful they have been given the lottery ticket to live here.

Why else do we think all of these people who illegally spilled over the border under Biden are fighting tooth and nail to stay?

As for foreigners in general — look no further than the international soccer fans who have recently descended upon our shores and flyover states and delighted in the discovery of American hospitality, unique landscapes, and food like ranch dressing.

Yes, even our condiments make people love this land.

Heck, even America’s worst critics are mounting legal challenges to remain. Just look at anti-Israel rabble rouser Mahmoud Khalif, who is dying to stay here despite calling our nation an unjust hellhole every two seconds.

Great country, this America!

But back to Chattanooga. Nathan Scherer’s father, Charles was also infuriated.

“It just really upset me, the whole time riding down,” he told WTVC, adding that he was embarrassed because his granddaughter was on board.

I don’t know what goes on in their household. But if your granddaughter’s ears are too sensitive for some good-old fashioned declaration of American pride, may I suggest she apply to be an intern for Mayor Zohran Mamdani? He delivered a speech on July 3 that might be more to the Scherers’ taste, saying of some unnamed “powerful” cabal: “America, in their view, is an arena of supremacy, where only a select few are allowed freedom, where not all are created equal.”

How cynical.

Or perhaps there is a job opening with soon-to-be Congresswoman Claire Valdez, who posted on X: “This 4th of July we recommit ourselves to remaking it. To fight for liberation from Palestine to Puerto Rico, for a Green New Deal, for the world we deserve.”

Who shows up to someone’s big birthday party and gives a speech about how much they suck? There are 364 other days of the year to lob insults.

Same goes for the Scherers. It was America’s big, giant awesome birthday — and a day to be unflinchingly patriotic and reverent. Even if that means a little hyperbole.

Look, I don’t know what the deal is with Peterson. Maybe he was already on probation for loving America too much and inappropriately touching our flag, or for playing Lee Greenwood on repeat inside his train. Perhaps this was the last straw after he made a habit of showing off his bald-eagle tramp-stamp tattoo to passengers.

Maybe his employer was just looking for an excuse to send him packing and the Scherer family provided the HR lady the last bit of ammo needed to cut him loose.

“I truly do believe we are the greatest country on earth,” Peterson told WTVC. “My statement about if you don’t like the country and don’t believe we are the best, then you can leave, is a freedom of the USA that many other countries do not have.”

Scherer and his father have a right to be offended, but they don’t have a right to be taken seriously. Clutching ye olde pearls because someone said love America or leave it is a wild state of affairs.

The default should be love — not self-loathing.