It’s tragic that the country’s 250th anniversary is coming at a time of profoundly performative division.

In one part of America, and among certain classes, the very idea of patriotism is off limits. Once there was little difference between the parties in patriotic sentiment, but more recently — even before President Donald Trump — the gap has expanded dramatically. In Gallup’s most recent survey, 93% of Republicans call themselves very or extremely proud to be an American, versus just 27% of Democrats. 

The rising class of anti-American Americans is concentrated in our cities and college towns, most notably among younger, educated people. One recent survey of young Americans concluded that most thought they were living in what surveyors described as “a dying empire led by bad people.”  

Many who declared Trump “not my president” now increasingly feel that America is not their country, either. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has tried to restrict some celebrations, including public events at Times Square. The traditional Fourth of July fireworks show in Long Beach, has been canceled. San Marcos, a San Diego County affluent community that leans Democratic, has even banned hanging flags on the street. 

Hollywood, now largely a bastion of the progressive left, is not likely to celebrate our semiquincentennial, either. Not with stars like Billie Eilish claiming that “no one is illegal on stolen land.” I doubt she plans to hand back her manse to the Tongva, the original inhabitants of Los Angeles, or to move somewhere that has no history of taking land from someone else (if she can find such a place). 

Some leftist politicians, notably from the ascendant Democratic Socialists of America, see the autocracies of the Third World as their preferred role model. Some politicians, particularly on the left, even get away with saying they favor other countries over their own. The two Democrats in one of the recent New York congressional primaries said they were cheering for Senegal or Mexico, rather than the US, in the Word Cup, a position that once would have been disqualifying. 

Many would say that President Trump is not helping to bring Americans together, either. Critics say that he has attempted to turn the 250th anniversary into what the National Review labeled “another Trump campaign rally.” The leftist New Republic called the celebration “Donald Trump’s lost cause.” 

But events he sponsored, like the Great American State Fair, are hardly Nuremberg rallies. Some of the speeches at the fair provoked churlish, but not vicious, chuckles. Others simply see the fair as a wholesome return to tradition. Nothing wrong with clean star-spangled fun with the kids.

What is needed now is less partisanship and more affirmation of the uniqueness of being American.

Canadians and Europeans may scoff at our nationalism, but we are still far more willing to defend our country than they are theirs. And despite the negativity that surrounds us, Americans are far less pessimistic than our more “collective” Anglophone cousins in Britain and elsewhere. Most Americans, including the young, expect to be doing better in the future. 

We also still revere our founding documents. According to a recent survey, most Americans embrace the founding principles in the Declaration of Independence — “that all men are created equal,” and that the goal of a state is to allow “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Some may see less patriotic and more “civilized” Europe as a model, but the old continent has fallen far behind in productivity, economic growth, investment, and wealth per capita. America dominates the list of the very largest companies on earth, and this dominance is getting stronger. Critically, America is consolidating its domination of aerospace, with far more orbital launches than the rest of the world put together.

And the US attracts the most talented immigrants to high-tech industries. A large portion of the CEOs at the top Silicon Valley companies are themselves foreign-born. And by far the most consequential of our entrepreneurs, Elon Musk, is himself an immigrant from South Africa. 

I get that Trump can seem (to critics, anyway) overly interested in currying favor with rich Middle Eastern medievalists as he shows off a new fancy plane from Qatar.

But America is greater — much greater — than any president from whatever party. 

Look at how far we have come — and it’s about much more than money.

My daughters are shocked when I tell them about seeing “Colored Only” signs on the road to Williamsburg back in the early 1960s. In contrast, they saw a man of African descent win the White House and live in a society where racial tolerance, notes Brookings, is espoused by a great majority. 

Our Founders might be horrified by the banality of today’s America, as well as its gaping fiscal worries. But they also would find much to admire in a very diverse society — still growing, still seeking, still wanting to reach ever further into the solar system. Talk about manifest destiny! 

Some communities are still holding nonpartisan celebrations. The best events will likely be in smaller towns and suburbs, less impacted by anti-American fervor than big cities. In my suburban enclave in Orange County, there’s bunting and events galore. We await a barrage of fireworks that will keep the dogs howling.

The basic reality, to borrow from the Founders, is self evident. The system they developed is still working. America remains the preeminent country on earth and still functions as a very contentious democracy. Not bad for a nation that started with a threadbare rebellion, far from what was once considered the center of civilization.

That is something to really celebrate. 

Joel Kotkin is the presidential fellow in urban futures at Chapman University and senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute of the University of Texas at Austin.

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