The Problem Is Not America, It’s Americans
Hugh Hewitt > Blog
Friday, July 3, 2026
For those of us old enough to remember the nation’s 200th, the contrast between then and this 250th is truly startling. One is forced to ponder the difference. Given that we have essentially two days to observe this momentous anniversary (today is the official “day off” and tomorrow is the actual holiday) I shall commemorate the event in two posts. Today I’ll look at the down side of the contrast and tomorrow I’ll look at the upside. Also, given the unusual holiday weekend, I’ll do the usual leftover round-up today instead of tomorrow.
Nothing fundamental has changed in the last 50 years. The Constitution has not been amended. It is the same 50 states. We still elect a president every four years, congresspersons every two, and senators every six. The Supreme Court still sits with nine justices. The Rule of Law is still the order of the day. And yet the nation seems so radically different. Fifty years ago the celebration could barely be contained. It was one of the most tumultuous times in American history – less than two years after Nixon’s still unprecedented resignation and during the election cycle that brought us Jimmy Carter. You would think there might be a lot of navel gazing in such circumstance, but there was not. There was simply a large, enthusiastic celebration.
By contrast this celebration is marked by states refusing to celebrate on the National Mall. Every celebration seems muted in some fashion, whether by political divisions or people simply reminding us that not everyone is happy and joyous. A single example – for decades the tradition in this household was to sit on our friends back porch, the friends with the incredible view of the Rose Bowl, and watch the fireworks from that renowned stadium – always one of the biggest displays in the nation. Of course our move to Tennessee has forced that tradition to change. But our friends with that spectacular view remain where they were. They tell us that the formerly 30-45 minute display of fireworks has been replaced by 15-20 minutes of drone display. Why? Because the noise of the fireworks disturbed some and the smoke made air quality lower. And so the scolds carry the day. Our celebrations are muted by scolds.
Jim Geraghty wrote yesterday that “No Politician Is Coming To Save You.” He did so in light of the continued election of antisemitic communists in Democratic primaries, noting that the wave of such is born of those politicians making essentially messianic promises. But I think in so doing he put his finger on one of the essential differences.
The host has his weekly conversation with Ben Domenech yesterday. Domenech noted how Mamdani has taken a page from the Covid playbook to scold and shame New Yorkers into setting their thermostats to 78 in the midst of an unbearable heatwave. And there is the second difference. Covid has been transformative to probably a couple of generations.
The big message of covid was essentially socialistic if not communist. The idea was that we all bear responsibility for the other and that if we do not all do act as a single entity everything will breakdown. It was a deeply warped version of genuine Christian generosity as it was not individually affirming. It sought to subsume the individual to the collective rather than uplift the individual so that he or she might benefit the other with their largesse. And in so doing it created an expectation that the system was somehow our savior. Thus who we elected took on outsized importance.
Through that process we learned it is pointless to try and take care of oneself as it all depends on the collective. Optimism died on the pedestal of the collective. I was in college for the 200th – my life ahead of me. I had had a horrendous freshman year. I had every reason to doubt my future. But there I was in the middle of a massive crowd in downtown Indianapolis, In to celebrate the nation. I did so because my future was up to me. Nixon…Ford…Carter was an event, but regardless, I had to get my stuff together and move on to building a life. (Thank the Lord, it was successful.)
These days the kids sit around and wait for things to get better and drag them along with events. They wait for a savior when the Savior has been around for 2000 years and that Savior’s message was in no small part, “Get over yourself and get busy.” This nation was funded on the principle of freedom, mostly freedom to better oneself. Current generations seem to have lost sight of that and wallow in the more of the collective.
OK – The Round-Up
The ugly politics of the day are spreading everywhere, even the saner places.
The typical California bashing:
The violence is real – towards people and animals.
Where excessive taxation ruins everything from wine to gasoline.
