Independence Day

What Will We Celebrate on July 4, 2023?

Welcome to the Civic Way journal, our quick take on the relevance of breaking news to America’s future governance. The author, Bob Melville, is the founder of Civic Way, a nonprofit dedicated to good government, and a management consultant with over 45 years of experience improving public agencies.

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“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.” – Abraham Lincoln

Last Monday, millions of Americans gathered to celebrate our great national holiday.

Despite high gas prices, rising interest rates and other worries, we reveled. Getaways and street parties. Grilling, cookouts and burgers. Red, white and blue hues. Parades and pageantry. Flags and fireworks. The comfort of friends and family. We came together, at least for one day.

But, what were we really celebrating last week? And what will we celebrate next year?

There was a time that we celebrated July 4th to commemorate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Not only for its bold defiance to King George III and mighty England, but for its noble recognition that we are all created equal with certain inalienable rights, such as “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

For 245 years, July 4th was a day for celebrating what we once knew as freedom. Our rights as individuals. Our representative democracy. Our system of checks and balances. The rule of law. The freedom to overcome our differences and find common cause. The freedom to perfect our union and achieving our best selves—as one nation under God.

This year seemed eerily different. On the morning of July 4, 2022, we were exposed to a stirring National Rifle Association video showcasing a bald eagle, an American flag and the “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Its message? “The only reason you’re celebrating Independence Day is because citizens were armed.”

On the afternoon of July 4, 2022, a gunman with a high-powered rifle sprayed a Highland Park, Illinois holiday parade with bullets, killing or wounding dozens of innocents, including children. The other parade attendees scattered in terror. Highland Park and other Chicago communities quickly cancelled their holiday events. Celebration ceded to fear, perhaps forever.

So, what will we celebrate next July 4th?

Easy access to guns? The acceptance of mass shootings? The fear of assembling in public spaces? The ability of citizens to sue public school districts or other citizens? The loss of privacy for women? The intrusion of government into other decisions most Americans regard as deeply personal?

What else will we celebrate? Disdain for community? The wanton disregard of other people? Indifference to the public interest? The intimidation of public officials? Empowering state legislatures to overturn fair elections? The destruction of public facilities? The loss of democracy? The rise of authoritarianism?

Or will it be the fake patriotism of politicians like Marjorie Taylor Green? Using the holiday to divide us instead of uniting us. Green suggested that Democrats staged the Highland Park shooting to promote gun control. “As soon as we hit MAGA month, the month that we’re all celebrating, loving our country, we have shootings… like it’s designed to persuade Republicans to go along with more gun control…”

Or will we merely come to see July 4th as another holiday?

We are about to find out.

In this year’s midterms, many Americans will cast votes for their favorite candidates. Many will think they are voting for Republicans or Democrats. Some will believe they are supporting conservatives or liberals. Some will rationalize that they are heeding the values of their tribe or favorite media outlet. If so, they will be misguided.

On January 6, 2021, over 120 elected US Representatives, each and every one of whom had sworn an oath to uphold the US Constitution, voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Not the results of the 2020 elections they won, just the results of the presidential contest in one or more states they lost.

They justified their vote on a brazen lie, the sad delusion of one man who could not accept his electoral defeat. The same lie that provoked a wild mob to storm the US Capitol. The lie that, repeated relentlessly, stirred extremists to plot a coup. The lie that caused white supremacists to conspire to hang the Vice President (and kill other public officials). The lie that spawned chaos and left several dead and over 140 law enforcement officers injured.

We will be told that the 2022 elections are about party or ideology. That they will shape the nation’s course on vital issues ranging from abortion to climate change. And this will be true, to the same extent it has been and will always be true.

But the 2022 midterm elections will be about something more.

They will be about what we want to celebrate next July 4th. And they may very well determine what we celebrate every Independence Day thereafter.