Left the Party: The ‘No Kings’ Crowd Kisses the Crown on Independence Day

America turns 250 this Saturday, and half the country has decided the party isn't worth attending. Why? Because the propaganda worked.

This Saturday, July 4, 2026, America celebrates its 250^th anniversary. The technical terms for this occasion include semiquincentennial, sestercentennial, and even bicenquinquagenary. (I’m not making that up!) Whatever you call it, make sure you call it Independence Day.

A date on the calendar tells you when something happened. Independence Day tells you what happened. I first made this case back in 2013, for what was then America’s 237^th birthday. (I don’t think there’s a fancy Latin term for that occasion.) My argument was simple then, but the events of subsequent years have made it more urgent. To call it the “Fourth of July,” just a date on the calendar, strips this celebration of its meaning. Thirteen years later, I feel even more strongly about what we call this day.

I Was There in ‘76

I’m old enough to remember America’s 200^th birthday in 1976. That anniversary came in a presidential election year, at a time when the nation was struggling with inflation and the ongoing repercussions of Watergate. Unlike today, we were largely able to set aside division and rancor to commemorate this extraordinary statement of independence. Democrats and Republicans, big cities and small towns, young and old – virtually everyone accepted that this was a unique and special occasion. I know the dangers of false nostalgia, but trust me: I was there. That unity was real. And so too was the understanding of what that holiday meant.

I don’t need to tell you that we don’t have that unity today. For many on the left, Donald Trump is a convenient excuse to refuse to celebrate America’s 250^th birthday. Put simply, because they despise the man throwing the party, they’ve decided the party itself is undeserved. The progressive Political Vise has been busy compelling politicians and performers to stay away from official festivities. Musicians who had pledged to perform at a 250^th celebration concert in Washington found themselves pressured to cancel. I don’t think it’s hyperbole to point out that the left has confused their rage at one man with contempt for the country he leads.

The ‘Reckoning’ Racket

Donald Trump may be the target-in-chief of the left’s anger, but progressive hostility to the American experiment predates his election. Since 2013, when I first wrote in defense of Independence Day, it has become an article of faith on the left that there is little about America that deserves honor. The 1619 Project (originally published in and promoted by the New York Times) argues that we only declared our independence to ensure the survival of our slave-based economy. Alternative histories of the United States declare that America is fundamentally racist to the core. What we need, these voices declare, is a long-overdue reckoning. (Accompanied, of course, by untold billions in reparations.)

This combination of personal hostility to President Trump and growing disdain for the facts of American history has produced a sharp and partisan collapse in patriotism. Don’t take my word for it. Take CNN’s. According to the network’s chief polling analyst, Harry Enten, since 2015 the share of Democrats who say they are extremely or very proud to be American has fallen from 80 percent to 36 percent. Among Gen Z Democrats, that figure is down to 24 percent. Over that same period, the percentage of Republicans admitting their pride in this country rose to 92 percent.

The Pride Recession

“I just never thought I’d see these numbers,” Enten said. He may be surprised, but I’m not. Neither, frankly, should any honest observer of the culture. These are the predictable consequences of a decade spent teaching people that the flag is a symbol of oppression, and that the founders were greedy and racist.

Predictable or not, polls capture a moment in time. They don’t capture enduring truth, nor can they predict what the future will hold. And the truth is that the naysayers and cynics are wrong. They are wrong about American history in general, and they are wrong about this celebration in particular. Two hundred fifty years ago this Saturday, a group of men staked their lives on an idea no government had ever conceded: that the individual is sovereign, and the state exists to serve him. They built the most successful experiment in human freedom the world has seen. That idea was radical when Thomas Jefferson wrote it down, and it remains radical today. An idea that threatens the powerful never stops needing defenders.

The Idea They Can't Kill

Besides the plea to call this holiday by its rightful name, I made another argument in that 2013 essay, one that I think has only grown more important to remember. We are celebrating more than the day fifty-six men signed a document. We are celebrating the entire process that led to that moment – and all that came as a result. It took years for the founders to move from petitioning with grievance to launching revolution to securing liberty. The lesson I drew in my 2013 piece is the one I’d offer now to anyone disheartened by the polls, or the national rancor, or the empty seats at the celebration in Washington: patriots are stubbornly patient. As I wrote then, “Let us remember that it is the patriots who stay; it is the patriots who fight. It is the patriots whose hearts grow stronger and whose minds work smarter who persuade enough of their neighbors, their co-workers and their family that the fight is worthwhile and winnable.”

It is true that America may seem even more divided than it was in 2013. That doesn’t mean the fight isn’t winnable. We must remain patient and resolved, just as our forefathers were patient and resolved. On the day they signed the Declaration of Independence, the future was very much in doubt. The war still had years to run. Yet we don’t celebrate the day the British surrendered. We don’t mark the end of the conflict. We mark the moment that fifty-six brave men put their lives, their fortunes, their signatures and their sacred honor on the line for a gloriously precious idea: liberty.

Leaders come and leaders go. Patriotism goes in and out of fashion with the elites. Call it our 250^th birthday, call it the semiquincentennial, but this weekend is the right time to remind the world (and ourselves) that we are free and sovereign human beings. Join me in celebrating this Saturday. And join me in calling it Independence Day.