Ep. 1788 - Everything Wrong With The America 250 Celebrations

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Download Poly Market and use promo code PASS for $50 free on your first trade. Use promo code PASS. Trading not available in all jurisdictions. Check local regulations before trading. Restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. One of my favorite Americans who happened to be born before America was a country is Daniel Boone. Two years after America's birth as a nation, Boone was in captivity, having been taken prisoner by a Shawnee war party. He was in prison for months and then he escaped. He made a daring escape. He had to travel 160 miles through uncharted wilderness by foot and by horse in just five days, makes it back to his settlement and just enough time to warn them of a coming attack. Now, that story alone could be its own movie. It's already separated into three acts right there. And there should be dozens of movies about Daniel Boone. Instead, there have been basically none, at least since the 1960s. But that story is just one anecdote from an absolutely amazing, mythic, and yet also real American life. Boone spent decades exploring and charting the wild American frontier. He helped to blaze the wilderness road through the Appalachian Mountains, which would pave the way for settlers to make it into Kentucky, which then became a doorway into the West. Just 15 miles from their final destination on the Kentucky River, Boone's party was attacked by Shawnee warriors. Two men were killed and this echoed an incident from two years before when Boone was attacked by Cherokees as he tried to make it into Kentucky. And at the time, several of his party were killed, including his son. And yet two years later, here he was again, and this time he completed the task. And this again is just one chapter in an amazing, unbelievable, and yet real American life. These are the kinds of stories that we should be talking about in the lead up to America's 250th birthday. We have a lot to celebrate and a lot to be thankful for. We are a nation built by some of the most extraordinary humans who have ever lived on the planet. And yet, as you may have noticed, America 250 has so far been a rather muted, anti-climatic affair. I mean, it's hardly been an affair at all. It's basically like not happening. There's very little national excitement for it. Very little is being done to commemorate it. And the few meager attempts to organize events around America 250 have been confused and disjointed and disorganized and frankly embarrassing. All the more so because it was not supposed to be like this. Now, less than two years ago, if you can recall back that far, Donald Trump won the popular vote over Kamala Harris by several million votes. And to the liberal mind, every true believer in the self-described party of democracy, this result wasn't simply shocking. It was unthinkable. I mean, these are people who firmly believe to their core that the Electoral College was the only reason for the existence of the Republican Party to begin with. And of course, in truth, Kamala Harris's defeat was not difficult to explain. It turns out that no sane American wants to be told every day for years on end that America is a terrible country. Americans don't want endless racial grievances to dictate public policy. We don't want open borders to destroy our national identity any more than we want deranged activists to smear America's founders and tear down their statues. So by electing Donald Trump over Kamala Harris, more than 77 million voters rejected a political ideology that's premised on cynicism and resentment and envy and disdain for America and its people, particularly white males. Instead, we voted for the candidate who promised explicitly that he would celebrate America's greatness and in particular its history. So this video is from the summer of 2023 as the Biden administration ramped up its campaign of political prosecutions against Trump and his allies. At the time, to many Americans, the idea that Trump could actually win re-election seemed hard to comprehend. But with that in mind, here was Trump's message at the time. Watch. 150 years of American independence. What a great country. And we have to keep it that way. But that's why as a nation, we should be preparing for a most spectacular birthday party. We want to make it the best of all time. Here is my plan to give America's founding in 1776, the incredible anniversary it truly deserves. On day one, I will convene a White House task force called Salute to America 250. It will be responsible for coordinating with state and local governments to ensure not just one day of celebration, but an entire year of festivities across the nation, starting on Memorial Day 2025 and continuing through July 4th, 2026. Second, I will work with all 50 governors, Republican and Democrat alike, to create the great American State Fair, a unique one-year exhibition featuring pavilions from all 50 states. It'll be something. The great American State Fair will showcase the glory of every state in the Union, promote pride in our history, and put forth innovative visions for America's future. Now, Memorial Day 2025 has come and gone. And as you've probably noticed, the nationwide parades have not begun far from it. Instead, the administration's plan to honor the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of this country by any measure has fallen apart in spectacular fashion and has certainly fallen well short of that ambitious vision that he laid out that sounded really exciting. That would have been great if that could have happened, but none of it did. And, you know, I will freely admit that this is a failure that truly bothers me for a number of reasons. And the more that I think about it, and the closer we get to July 4th, the more frustrated I become and the more depressing the whole situation is. And you probably feel the same way. If you don't, you should, because no matter what your political beliefs happen to be, this is a story that has many ramifications, some obvious, some not so obvious, for the future of this country. As I'll explain in a minute, there has never been a failure of this type that is this embarrassing in the history of the United States. Okay, the total inability to like, or interest in celebrating an event like this is unprecedented in American history. And the most troubling thing about this situation is what it says about the current state of our country. And that's why on cable television right now, foreigners are telling millions of Americans that they should feel unease about honoring our country's history in the first place. Watch. In one month, America will mark the 250th anniversary of its founding. Like previous anniversaries, there is a deep unease about this. I feel a deep unease about these celebrations to which I am invited to mark the 250th anniversary of our so-called democracy. Now that MSNBC host, as you probably are not aware, is named Ali Velshi. He was, as you could tell, not born here. He was born in Kenya. He went to school in Canada. He was the guy who during the George Floyd riots in Minneapolis in 2020 told everybody that the riot was not unruly even as buildings went up in flames behind him. And you could see there. And now, as a proven liar and as someone who isn't American, who has no loyalty or love for this country at all, he's going on national television and telling Americans they should feel uneasy about celebrating their history. Now, something tells me that if I went to Kenya or to India where his parents are from and announced that they should be uneasy about celebrating their national holidays or commemorating their history, Ali Velshi would be the first in line to call me a racist and a colonizer. And yet he can come here and say that's us. Now, whose goal could not be any more clear? And he's not alone. The rest of the corporate press is also running cover for leftists who want to terrorize America to 50 events and destroy the country. Also, watch. Tonight with preps already underway for an event celebrating America's 250th birthday on the National Mall, a new snag. This will be a time like you've never had in your lives, America to 50. Six musical artists originally announced as performers now dropping out, many citing political concerns. Country singer Martina McBride writing, I was presented with an opportunity to perform at a nonpartisan event, but that turned out to be misleading. Rapper young MC saying, artists were never told about any political involvement. And poison frontman Brett Michaels writing, it's evolved into something much more divisive than I agreed to be part of. The event is organized by Freedom 250, a public-private partnership launched by President Trump. Now, what's interesting about that footage is that while they read an excerpt from Brett Michaels post, they conveniently left out the most important part. So here's what he wrote in its entirety, quote, Unfortunately, what was presented to us as a celebration of our country has evolved into something much more divisive than what I agreed to be a part of. Concerns have also been raised regarding the safety of my fans, band, crew, family and myself, including threats that are completely unfounded and unforgivable. Because of that, I have made the difficult decision to step away from this performance. So NBC News omitted the fact that in pulling out of the event, Brett Michaels, the leader of the band Poison, which was popular for about 30 seconds in 1988, cited threats of domestic terrorism and political violence that would be committed obviously by leftists. Now, many of these artists, we can assume, have similar concerns, and those concerns are not unfounded. I mean, if we're being honest with ourselves, we all know there's a very real possibility that a leftist will attempt to murder people who try to celebrate the founding of America. This is, after all, a movement that openly cheered the assassination of a health insurance CEO, as well as Charlie Kirk. They've tried to murder Donald Trump more than any other president in American history, that's had attempts on their life, and they have adopted the tactics of the Bolsheviks, who we'll discuss at length in an upcoming episode of Real History, by the way. And like the Bolsheviks, leftists in America seek to violently topple the established order and murder tens of millions of people in the process. That's why they're telling musicians that they'll be executed if they participate in an event that has anything to do with our country's history. And it's one of the reasons why many of these musicians are backing out. NBC News doesn't want to say that out loud, but it's true. And yet, all that being the case, I cannot absolve the administration of responsibility here because they have bungled this event as well. I mean, it's looking like we will not have anything close to the raucous, joyous, patriotic celebration that our nation's 250th deserves and that Trump promised. And the blame for that failure can be cast in many directions. And anyone who says that the Trump administration itself is entirely blameless is just being a partisan shill, which I refuse to be. I mean, the fact is that even before the artists started dropping out of Trump's planned concert in droves, there was already a major problem. The problem is that those artists were invited to begin with. You know, the administration had planned a concert featuring, and I'm not making this up, you saw it there on the screen, Millie Vanilly, Vanilla Ice, a few other washed up 80s acts, a rapper from 15 years ago called Flo Rida, and a couple other artists that nobody cares about or even knew were still alive. I mean, the only thing sadder and more pathetic than a Millie Vanilly and Vanilla Ice concert getting canceled is a Millie Vanilly and Vanilla Ice concert that is not canceled. So the lineup made no sense to begin with. It was a function of the conservative habit of pathetically latching on to any famous people who give you the time of day, even if they're only famous for being national punchlines, as is the case with, you know, Millie Vanilly and Vanilla Ice. And now that the worst musical artists in modern history are dropping out, the embarrassment is only compounded. I mean, it's like asking the ugliest girl in school to the prom and getting turned down. So it's just like the ultimate humiliation. So what's plan B? How will the Trump administration pivot? Well, after a few more artists canceled their appearances, Trump posted the following message on social media. We'll put it up on the screen. And I'm not going to read the whole thing, but the basic idea is that Trump says that he's more popular than Elvis in his prime, and therefore he's going to, quote, give a major speech rallying the country forward. We don't need any kind of musical performances or entertainment. Trump says he's just going to host an America is back rally on Wednesday in Washington, which he says will be a quote, wild and beautiful celebration of America. So in other words, we get another stump speech from the president. Now, you know, yes, years ago, I was often entertained by Trump speeches. Most of the country was. He was saying things that no serious American presidential candidate had ever said before. But somewhere in the past half decade, the speeches have started sounding pretty familiar, and that's not even a knock against Donald Trump. It's an unavoidable fact of life that when somebody gives speeches for a decade, they lose their novelty at a certain point. You know, we've still never seen a politician give a speech like Trump, but we have seen Trump give a speech like Trump like a thousand times at this point. You know, it's not the kind of main event that's going to draw in huge audiences. And more importantly, it's not the best way to highlight the achievements of this country going back hundreds of years. You know, America 250 should be a party, a celebration, not something that is about Donald Trump or where Donald Trump is the main act. And the fact is that, you know, nobody in the entire history of parties has ever wanted to sit and listen to a 90 minute speech from a politician. Okay, you've never showed up to a party and said, Hey, this is great. When do the speeches start? You know, a political rally is not a party. And what's more, several of the acts that that that pulled out claim they were doing so, because the event was more political than they were initially told. Well, turning the event into a literal political rally would seem to legitimize their concerns. So Trump is handing them a PR victory on top of everything else. America 250 should not be about Trump. It should be about America. And that's why again, a Trump speech should not be the main event. Now he should attend the events. He should be a guest of honor attending and being a part of it. It shouldn't be about him, though. Now I'll be told and I have been told that, well, they tried. They tried to do it differently, but it didn't work. Well, that's true. But the only thing they tried as far as we know was to have a concert featuring Millie Vanilly, Vanilla Ice and Brett Michaels. I would humbly suggest that there is a lot of room in between a concert featuring geriatric one hit wonders from the 80s and a rambling 90 minute speech from Donald Trump. Okay, those are not the only two choices on the menu. For one thing, they could have a concert featuring military bands. That's an act that we know for sure the White House can book and it would be vastly, vastly superior to both Vanilla Ice and a political rally. America doesn't stand for 250 years as a beacon of hope without brave men and women willing to put their lives on the line to protect it. And when those men and women finally come home, they shouldn't be forgotten. That's why Pure Talk and its customers are raising $250,000 for America's Warrior Partnership by the end of July. 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Tim Burchett of Tennessee has come up with a few suggestions, some better than others, but watch. What we ought to do is, my suggestion would be get your friend and my friend John Rich, great musician, delete it off. He's got some great patriotic tunes he's written and he sings, and I mean it's just awesome. And let him emcee the dad gum thing and have all these folks come in. There's plenty of acts in Nashville, people that are trying to get on a big stage like this. This is the world stage, be the largest stage in the world. Everybody in the country will be watching this dad gum thing. And let some of those musicians get out and sing a few songs. All we'd have to do is pay for their dad gum airfare, most of them, just to get them up there. And they'd love it. And then of course have Kid Rock. Nobody's more patriotic in the rock and roll world than he is. Now I'm going to cut it off there just because as much as I respect Kid Rock's patriotism, we can't have Kid Rock do everything. I mean it's become a meme at this point. But as Burchett said, there are plenty of talented artists in Nashville who would jump at the opportunity to fly to D.C. and perform for a national audience. Nobody said that you have to have famous musicians play. I mean I would make the bold suggestion that it's better to have good musicians than famous ones if you have to choose between the two. And maybe you do in this case. But you can't convince me that there aren't hundreds of musical acts in Nashville alone, never mind the rest of the country, who would leap at the chance to perform for an audience of millions. I mean you could have done like a year long almost American Idol style tryout. Trump could have gone back to his reality TV roots and did something like that. I mean you could have done a contest to be the act, to be, you know, find five bands who can perform at this event. You'd have thousands of people signing up for that. You know, rather than trying to trade in on the meager fumes of whatever fame somebody like Brett and Michael still possesses, why not have a concert featuring non-famous artists and make them famous. That would be creating culture for a change which is what we should be doing. It would take an extreme lack of creativity or laziness to conclude that there are no talented musicians anywhere who would perform at this event. That's just total nonsense. But we do have to acknowledge and this does work in the administration's defense to some extent that nothing like this has ever happened in the country's history. And I know that sounds like hyperbole but it's true. The centennial in 1876 took place just a decade after the end of the Civil War and that was a conflict of course that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans, about two percent of the population of the country. We lost more soldiers in the Civil War than in all of our other wars put together and to put those numbers in context, if a similar war happened today, it would mean the deaths of millions of people, wiping out the equivalent of the entire population of Los Angeles and Chicago combined. So we're talking about a massive conflict here, one in which many Americans in the north came to view their southern neighbors as irredeemable, demonically possessed savages and guess what? Even with all of that recent history in mind, the country could still hold a centennial in 1876. 11 years after the end of the Civil War, several states celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Despite extraordinary resentment, entire families and cities that were destroyed, Americans still felt compelled to honor their country's history. In San Francisco, people gathered and staged a mock naval battle and held festivals in the street. We'll put some of those images on the screen. These are from July 3rd, 1876, the mock battle which included some ships in the water nearby was held in the Presidio area of San Francisco and according to some estimates more than 80,000 people showed up, including the governor of the National Guard, several regiments and a cavalry group. Meanwhile, the president Grant sent the original copy of the Declaration to Philadelphia where it was put on display in part because people noticed that the document was falling apart. The government eventually responded many years later by creating the National Archives to ensure that our historical records remain intact. The torch of the Statue of Liberty was also on display in Philadelphia in 1876. The full statue hadn't been completed yet, but people could check out the plans and for the final statue, they could climb the torch and if they were feeling generous, they could donate to a fund to construct the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty which would ultimately be completed 10 years later. The centennial events in Philadelphia continued for months. More than 10 million people showed up. Cutting edge technological inventions were displayed, including the giant steam engine and you could see all the tiny people gathered around giving an idea of the scale of the thing. As Yale University reports, quote, at the 1876 American Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, a mighty cordless steam engine was ceremoniously unveiled on opening day by President Ulysses Grant and Emperor Pedro II of Brazil. The 1400 horsepower engine powered all the other mechanical devices on display in the Grand Machinery Hall. That wasn't the only attraction at the 1876 Centennial. There were typewriters and calculators and bridge cables. There was also a booth where people could try out a hot new invention called the telephone. This is from the New York Times, quote, in the closing days of the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876, Dom Pedro, Brazil stopped before Alexander Graham Bell's booth, put a telephone receiver to his ear, heard human speech and gasped in awe, my God, it talks. So again, all these people are optimistic. They're celebrating American ingenuity and brilliance. They're doing this in the immediate wake of a war where their fathers, brothers, uncles and grandfathers slaughtered each other by the thousands. And yet even they could celebrate and feel proud of their country. Now in the deep South, as you might imagine, the enthusiasm was a bit more muted. But even there amid reconstruction and the aftermath of the conflict, there was still some participation in Centennial. In particular, Mississippi used the opportunity to promote their local industries and secure new business deals to boost their economy. According to the Gulfport Museum of History, quote, in 1868, Congress appointed war hero and Medal of Honor holder General Adelbert Ames, the provisional governor of Mississippi. In this position, he promoted the entry of both Mississippi and Arkansas in the 1876 Centennial celebration by constructing exhibition buildings. The Republican controlled legislature passed a bill making Ames head of the Centennial Committee with authority to appoint all the members. They decided that a modest log cabin constructed entirely from Mississippi's vast timber resources would be the best way to promote that industry. Ames saw the exposition as a prime opportunity for Mississippi to open markets for its most abundant natural resources and the national exposure did attract wealthy industrialists who saw the potential for profit and a way to get the timber out, the steam engine, and to get to market a deep water port. So to recap, even in the immediate aftermath of a literal civil war, this country held a successful celebration of our shared history. And we did it again a century later at the Bicentennial in 1876. And as you may remember, the 70s were not exactly a period of harmony and prosperity in this country. We were coming off the Vietnam War, extreme inflation, gas lines, the civil rights movement, the Watergate hoax, and so on. And yet, despite all the angst, we were able to come together and honor this country's history. The so-called freedom train with a giant steam engine went all over the country to 48 states as a kind of rolling museum for people to board. The train contains several historical documents, including George Washington's copy of the Constitution and the Louisiana Purchase. Gerald Ford gave speeches. There's a strange contradiction in modern life. People have more information about health than ever before, yet a lot of people feel worse than they've ever felt. 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As National Archives notes, this was an organic movement. It wasn't part of any top-down effort from the federal government. Quote, the United States Congress had previously established the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission in 1966 to organize the Bicentennial celebration. The ARBC was criticized, however, for showing excessive political bias and commercialism. As a result, Congress replaced the ARBC with the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration in 1973. ARBA focused on supporting and coordinating state, local and private celebrations with around 66,000 recognized events in total. And people loved it. Spontaneous events popped up all over. And this was the attitude in the country at the time. Watch. Police days, we seem to spend so much of our time and energy surviving and reacting to the unhappy events and the strife and the conflict in our overcrowded world. But the Bicentennial seemed to awaken a certain feeling, a rather dormant spirit that too often seems to be missing from our modern life. And Gabe was one of many who sensed it. Call it patriotism. Call it a rebirth of pride. Call it whatever you will. But if you mingled with the crowds who watched up sale in the fireworks yesterday or came down for a last fling like these people at the South Street Seaport this afternoon, you might have felt what we did. A great sense of joy and well-being for the first time in many years, New Yorkers of all ages and backgrounds out in force celebrating together. It reminded you of a small town celebration of the 4th of July, an idealized Norman Rockwell Tableau. Only it wasn't a small town scene, not with these hundreds of thousands out to see the ships, young families, older people, in many cases grandparents, parents, children, celebrating together. And if you talk to them, you found they articulated what your eyes were seeing, a patriotic euphoria, bitter, angry, controversial years forgotten, at least for this moment, unity, reborn pride. For a lot of Americans, July 5th was just as good a day to celebrate the beginning of our third century as a nation as July 4th. And so the party was not over, people were out enjoying the sights and the sunshine, and they were still buzzing over yesterday's super celebration. It will not happen again in our lifetimes, but what an incredible happy birthday we had, a truly American adventure that will be etched in the memory of the many millions who were witnesses and participants. Operation Sail was a magnificent success from every angle, even more beautiful and spectacular than we were led to believe it would be. And most of the gloom and doom predictions went down the drain in the spirit of happy cooperation, befitting the event, the very special day, and the unabashed joy of the American people. New York Harbor was jammed with a promissor amada of warships, great sailing ships, and thousands of pleasure boats. And leading the great parade, witnessed by the so many millions on the shores, was the proud host ship the Coast Guard Cutters Pretty Eagle, unmistakable with her dashing orange and blue sash and her very special grace. For six million landlubbers, off-sale will also be hard to forget. Crowds lined up in an orderly fashion yesterday, waiting for the New York Harbor Parade to begin. Battery Park alone was jammed at 8 a.m. and literally thousands were standing in line to get a seat on the Staten Island ferry. Now in the interest of full disclosure, I will acknowledge that while the vast majority of people were happy and celebrated America's history, there were some hitches, in particular Ben Franklin was apparently hustled by gangsters at one point. This was after all, era of skyrocketing crime in New York. They didn't have Giuliani yet, just for history's sake, watch. Well, I paid $125 for a parking lot over there. We haven't made a cent of it. Now we've come here and set up and they want, these gangsters are walking around, they want $50 cash, which we haven't even made $13 today. Who wants the cash? Some guys. Well, some guys are walking around with a bicentennial committee buttons on and bogus printing. They have a claim that says bicentennial committee of permit $50. Are you saying you're being hustled? I have to admit, I imagine that Ben Franklin would be a little braver than this. I mean, he signed the Declaration of Independence. He flew a kite in a thunderstorm. He risked a lot over the years, but I guess by the 1970s, he grew soft and weak in his old age and let some gangsters in New York boss him around over $50, which is a shame. At any event, the point is we've held massive centennials and bicentennials before, even when the country was falling apart. But today in 2026, we have so far been unable to do so. And it's even worse than it first appears. In response to my posts on the America 250 events, I received several responses that tried to absolve the Trump administration of any part in the failure. But all they did was prove again that there's plenty of blame to go around. And so here's one of those replies from America first insights as quote, ultimately, the issue comes down to the fact that there are two organizers and one of them has been around longer and sucks America 250, which is the organization created by Congress 2016, to get things planned, in which they have effectively done nothing, mostly because it was a Obama appointee followed by a Biden appointee. The biggest successes have been a place to announce you are hosting a block party and a Google map page to tell you where some events are. And that's about it. They're the ones paying some other places events or companies to throw the 250 on celebrations this year. It's a total s show of do nothing liberals. The other event is hosted by Freedom 250 was created by Trump the second he got into office. The Freedom 250 is at least attempting to be proactive. The National Prayer event, the UFC fight, the Great American State Fair July 4th fireworks, Patriot Games and the Indy 500 are all Freedom 250 events. Now there's more to the reply, which I'll read in a second, but I'll stop here to acknowledge that indeed there are two groups that are involved in the planning here. The America 250 group was established by Congress a decade ago. It's supposed to be a nonpartisan, nonpolitical group, but it's run by an Obama Biden appointee named Rosie Rios. Just like we saw in the 1960s and 70s, the federal government's commission was politically compromised. In other words, and in the case of Rosie Rios, she clearly didn't expect that Donald Trump was going to win the presidency again. So here's what she wrote in the summer of 2024 quote, happy Pride month America as we acknowledge the vibrant history and significant contributions of the LGBTQIA plus community. I'm honored to highlight their resilience and our nation's ongoing journey toward equality. At America 250, our mission is to recognize and support those voices and we commemorate the two 250th anniversary of Declaration of Independence signing trailblazers like Harvey Milk, Marsha P. LeVern Cox, Bayard Rustin, Lani Kahumanu, who we all know, a legend just like Daniel Boone, you know Daniel Boone and Lani Kahumanu. Anyway, and Sylvia Rivera inspire us to continue the fight for equal rights and acceptance. Let's honor the legacy of LGBTQIA plus leaders and work together for a more inclusive and equitable future. Hashtag pride, hashtag America 250. So this was the vision for America 250 that would have taken hold if Kamala Harris had won. I mean, that's one thing for sure. You cannot even imagine what they'd be doing right now for this occasion. If Kamala Harris was in the White House, they would be doing something, they'd be doing a lot, they'd be doing a lot, but it would be, you know, taking the opportunity to honor pedophiles like Harvey Milk. They'd make everybody watch Hamilton and pretend to like it once again. They'd worship transgenderism and various other forms of sexual perversions. It'd be like the Super Bowl halftime show. They'd flood the National Mall with foreigners who can't speak English along with monuments to EBT cards. Instead of celebrating America's history, they'd be celebrating their conquest of America. Now we should all be grateful that we avoided that kind of atrocity by electing Donald Trump. But as a response to my complaints, this isn't really a meaningful point. Yes, the leftists wanted to bastardize the event, but the Trump White House knew that, which is why they established their Freedom 250 Committee. So what we're left with is the fact that two separate committees, given many years of planning time, are apparently incapable of putting together an event that appropriately and sufficiently honors this country's history, which to put it mildly is not an encouraging sign. As their response to my post continues, the group America First Insight offered their explanation of what's going on here. Quote, the fact is, from our understanding, most of the 1976 celebrations were ground up. Cities, towns and such, the community meant to hell of a lot more, were predominantly responsible for most of the celebration. Is that even possible in modern America? Ignoring the fact that half of this nation has had genuine deep hatred for the country drilled into their minds since the Obama era, it's actually a lot longer than that. The sense of community is at its weakest, to the point even things like Halloween fail to have large amount of trick or treaters. The sense of community required for events like this is not even close to the ones that were around in the 1970s. You criticize the geriatric one-hit wonders, but like, who else are you going to get? You are not going to get most of the younger ones because they hate America and they hate Trump. Seldomar, are they going to put away their hatred for the greater good? Well, I've already covered who else we can get. You know, the idea that if we can't get Brett Michaels and Millie Vanilly, we can't get anyone is totally ridiculous. The idea that there aren't any talented musicians who would perform at this thing is even more ridiculous, but they do point to something undeniable, which lays at the bottom of this whole sad, pathetic affair. The anti-American forces in this country are much stronger than they've ever been. As a result of decades of left-wing indoctrination in schools as well as open borders, an unprecedented number of people living in America have no love for this country, no pride in its history, no connection to it. I mean, that's the difference between now and 1976 or 1876. You know, I've heard it said that America 250 feels so anti-climatic and muted because the economy is in bad shape, but the economy was in bad shape in the 70s and that didn't stop them. I've heard it said that America 250 is a flop because of partisanship, but they fought a civil war right before America 100 and that didn't stop them. So this is not about partisan squabbling or a bad economy or any of those things. The difference between now and back then is that the basic love for and pride in our country has not been instilled. Entire generations of Americans today don't even know anything about their own history, much less do they feel any real attachment to it. I mean, how many people will listen to the beginning of this monologue and hear about Daniel Boone for like the first time? I think the percentage will be low because I have an intelligent audience, but the percentage is not zero and it should be. I mean, that's the problem. By the way, it's not like our past is the only thing we have to be happy about either. I mean, even today we're doing far better at the moment than any Western nation. Unlike other Western nations, including Canada and the UK, we don't imprison people for, you know, offending the cult of transgenderism. We don't murder people and harvest their organs because they seem depressed at the local Tim Hortons, unlike Canada. We have a growing economy. We're sending manned space missions farther into space than ever before. We have the best national parks in the world. It's relatively easy to start a business here where the world's only superpower. Our quality of life is so high that everyone else is clamoring to get inside our borders. We're one of the few places where you can own a gun and defend yourself. We have individual states that would rank among the world's biggest economies. None of that was true in the 19th century. So, you know, the current picture is not all doom and gloom, even though the media and the podcast circuit are motivated for different reasons, or maybe not so different, to tell you otherwise. And yet, whatever challenges we face today, and there are many of them and they are really significant, there's no question that our history is undeniably great. We are a nation that was forged from nothing. We defeated the world's greatest empire. We forged west into the unknown, vanquishing hostile Indians and conquering the wilderness. We fought a civil war only 90 years into our existence, which could have been the end of the experiment. Instead, we survived it, even thrived in the wake of the conflict. Over the next century, we went on to become a superpower, win two world wars, build a transcontinental railway, an interstate highway system. The Panama Canal landed a man on the moon, invented the light bulb, the airplane, the telephone, the internet. I mean, we're a nation of innovators, builders, inventors, pioneers. America 250 is about recognizing and appreciating all of that. Now, if we no longer live up to the lofty standards set by our ancestors, and I don't think we do, that's no less a reason to mark the occasion. In fact, it's all more the reason. None of us today can hold a candle to the greatest Americans. And that's why our goal shouldn't be to put on a political rally or a concert of one hit wonders. It should be to celebrate the greatness we inherited so that maybe one day we can reclaim it. That'll do for the show today. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. Talk to you tomorrow of a great day. Godspeed. Martin Luther King Jr. is an American icon, widely considered one of the greatest Americans who ever lived. A man who had a vision for a colorblind society, a post-racial America. He had a dream. It's just not the dream you thought it was. Or his true aims, a colorblind society, or something far more radical, who bankrolled him. What unfolded behind the scenes in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 was civil disobedience actually peaceful? We wanted to show you a clip of the I Have a Dream speech. But according to our lawyers, we can. In fact, King's family has made a lot of money suing media outlets. They want to silence critics like us. What they're doing makes it very difficult to judge Martin Luther King Jr. not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character. Is America today stronger, more unified, and racially equal than before King's rise? These questions demand answers. And as Americans, we are entitled to a full accounting of the civil rights movement and its consequences. King's movement fundamentally transformed our country and our system of government. I speak as a citizen of the world. Each day the war goes on, the hatred increases, though the cause of evil prosper. First part of our two-part special on the civil rights movement, a new constitution available now on Daily Wire+. Man, whenever I use a sportsbook during the soccer world championship, I feel like I'm getting robbed. Dude, to leap that app, you need to be using Polymarket. Polymarket is a prediction market, not a sportsbook. You trade against other fans, not the house. That means more money for you and less for greedy sportsbooks. Even during the world championship, especially during the world championship, whether you're trading on who wins the next match or who lifts the trophy in the final, sportsbooks take around $9 on a $100 position and pay out around $500. 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Learn more about what our people do at chevron.com slash usa 250.