It’s hard to celebrate July 4th in 2024 because it’s supposed to be a celebration of freedom. America might not yet seem like a totalitarian dictatorship. But free countries do NOT throw the primary political opposition (the more popular candidate) in jail. Free countries do not redistribute wealth (student loan forgiveness only the latest example). Free countries do not suspend due process for years on end over misdemeanor charges, as with January 6 prisoners. Free countries do not devalue the currency, in the process eroding the middle class for the sake of a wealthy, politically connected elite who will control everything we do. Call it what you will. NONE of this is freedom.
I will celebrate freedom today. I will celebrate America for what it might and ought to be, but not for what we have let ourselves become.