Well, the time has come and the birthday celebrations for this young nation are upon us.
The current presidential administration has chosen to celebrate by creating statues of Americans who were, by many accounts, racists and segregationists — and with taxpayer money, it seems.
They have also decided to continue to destroy the East Wing of the White House with a growing price tag to taxpayers of what could be close to $1.4 billion, build a 250-foot arch that will cost taxpayers about $100 million, and repaint the Lincoln Memorial pool that is riddled with algae for about $16 million. This is one expensive birthday celebration that very few have asked for.
They have even chosen to attempt to prosecute people who have touched the bleach-riddled pool by accusing them of vandalism. What timeline are we currently living in?
What Americans have asked for are lower prices at the gas pump and at the grocery store, good public schools, clean drinking water, affordable housing, and an end to countless wars that cost America money and lives. But here we are…we have a president who is showing each day that his mental fitness for the Oval Office should be called into question.
We are seeing a Republican party that looks at a green algae pool and agrees with the president that it is “American flag blue.” These are the same people who have stayed silent when the president has said he identifies with dictators and despots. Lost in the stream
These are the same Republicans willing to attempt unconstitutional gerrymanders in their states to appease the president. These are also the same people willing to “find him votes” he so desperately wants to maintain power. And these are the same members of Congress and the Courts willing to abdicate their own power to give the president sweeping control of all three branches of government — the executive, legislative, and judicial branches — the antithesis of what the framers of the Constitution intended. One need only look to Federalist 51 to see how far we as a nation have deviated from the controls on presidential power.
As many Americans celebrate the World Cup, they can’t help but remark on the diversity on the U.S. team; it is one of our nation’s greatest assets and strengths. Whenever we see American athletes march in the opening ceremonies at the Olympics, the summer before every U.S. presidential election, I am always in awe of the myriad of racial, ethnic, and religious groups representing our one indivisible nation.
However, the current presidential administration and the Republican party it represents have been far too eager to disavow the diversity that makes America so innovative. The Supreme Court, in the eagerness to appease the president, has even stripped Haitians and Syrians of their Temporary Protective Status (TPS), something that will affect hundreds of thousands of individuals and communities. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the mother of two adopted Haitian children, voted in favor of stripping Haitians of these rights. This is a woman who supports a president who swore Haitians in Ohio were eating their neighbors’ cats and dogs and has made his desire to rid the nation of non-white immigrants quite clear.
This young nation has always struggled to live up to the ideals in our founding documents, but we have had moments where we have ebbed and flowed in the direction toward unity, justice, and equality.
Sadly, those moments have been like the tides in the ocean, and just as they have given us events and opportunities where we could almost touch them and make them a reality, the ideas and ideals of racial and religious equity have receded back into the ocean almost as if a distant memory. There were glimmers of hope during Obama’s presidential victory in 2008 and again in 2025 with Zohran Mamdani’s NYC mayoral victory.
So how am I going to celebrate America turning 250? Well, I am still celebrating my Knicks winning, so that still has me feeling quite good about the status of my city and the leadership on a local level. I am excited to celebrate my diverse students in just a few short weeks when we begin school once again. I will get to discuss the formation and future of this nation with fresh minds who are eager to figure out their place in NYC, the U.S., and the world. And I am going to continue to write academic articles to better help me understand how Black people have fit into American democracy and what needs to be done to continue the incorporation of some of America’s most steadfast patriots.
Real threats remain
It is imperative that voters come out in November 2026 to change the leadership in Congress. This young nation cannot survive with a Republican Party obsessed with staying in the good graces of a petty and erratic president. We must think past purity tests for candidates and think (and vote) strategically for candidates in November who will do the least harm. We must continue to organize to present primary candidates within the Democratic Party who will challenge complacency and the status quo.
And we must never forget the hard-fought struggles of those who have come before us. We must build on their legacy and not just rest on their laurels. This is our democracy and we must fight for it and tend to it because that is the only way it works.
Christina Greer, Ph.D., is an associate professor at Fordham University; author of the books “How to Build a Democracy: From Fannie Lou Hamer and Barbara Jordan to Stacey Abrams” and “Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream”; and co-host of the podcast FAQ-NYC.
