For many of us Independence Day is a time to acknowledge the beginning of our nation. Our Second President, John Adams, wrote to his wife Abigail happily predicting annual celebrations marking this historic occasion.

“It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shews, games, sports, GUNS (my emphasis), bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of the continent to the other from this time forward forevermore,” Adams wrote. (He wanted the day to be the second day of July the day the Continental Congress actually declared our independence).

So why did Democrats and the news media viciously harangue President Trump, as head of state, for wanting to share in a Celebration of America and as commander-in-chief, to honor our men and women who serve in the military? One possible reason is he’s Donald Trump and for most that’s reason enough to oppose it. Another could be that none of them is the President and they don’t get to speak to millions like he was able to do.

But what makes the Democrats, news pundits and others target the Fourth of July? Why do they use Trump’s involvement to compare him to dictators? MSNBC, true to their tagline, “this is who we are,” announced they wouldn’t broadcast it. That’s interesting. They also ran an angry Joy Reid describing the threat of tanks rolling down the streets of DC. But none of her rant was true. And no one bothered to correct this. The gullible would swallow the lie and that’s all that mattered. The reality was two Abrams tanks and two personnel carriers didn’t rumble in a parade through the capital. These vehicles were parked in display along with other hardware as part of Trump’s desire to honor the military. They were but one part of a huge celebration of our military with flyovers by service personnel from the five branches accompanied by our outstanding U.S. Army Band.

Tanks have rolled down the streets of DC, however, as part of inaugural celebrations in 1953 and 1961.  And before in 1939, for a visit by King George VI, tanks rumbled through the nation’s capital. Bush ‘41 used them in a parade to celebrate victory in the Persian Gulf War (Source: USA Today). In fact, military events on Independence Day in DC date long before there was a tank. But I wouldn’t expect any of the talking heads on CNN or MSNBC to inform viewers about that. It wouldn’t support their narrative.

General George Washington began the tradition in 1778 by firing cannons. July 4, 1801, the United States Marine Band marked Independence Day in the White House and President Thomas Jefferson reviewed the troops. Presidents would continue reviewing the troops in the nation’s capital on July 4 until Zachary Taylor ended the practice in 1850. But again on July 4, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln reviewed the federal troops in DC. And there were many other displays of military might in DC including the Grand Review of the Armies at the close of the Civil War, May 23-24, 1865.

Given all of these previous displays of the armed services, patriotic speeches and colorful parades, why now do the Democrats go berserk over this event? It may actually have to do with research done at Harvard in 2012. Two men, Andreas Madestam and David Yanagisawa-Drott, released the results of a study they did on the effect patriotic symbols have on political preferences. Their findings: if a child attends at least one “rain-free” (yes that’s right, rain free) Fourth of July celebration, it would result in the likelihood that child would identify with the Republican Party by age 39. So having children attend Independence Day events could result in more people voting for Republicans for President.

Don’t think this escaped the attention of the Leftist Cabal who thrive on surveys and polls. It may explain why so many candidates and news experts were frantically scrambling to taint the president’s involvement and discourage anyone from watching the grand spectacle promised. 

And why did they not go nuts over earlier celebrations? The answer is Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky had not captured the hearts and minds of enough people. News reporters had not been seduced by the sinister intoxication of anti-American thought. And the Harvard study didn’t exist.

John Adam’s prediction has come true and this year lived up to Adam’s expectations. There was no political speech by Trump, just praise for our military service members and their families. The politics was injected by Democrats and the leftist news crowd’s outlandish predictions, vicious comments and attacks.

I could not imagine Barrack Obama spending any effort to stage an event like this.  Nor would the New York Times, who recently said America is “just okay” endorse this event. In fact, yesterday they cynically referred to it as a Trump-branded rally for America subtly insinuating he would turn it into something like his powerful and very well attended campaign rallies. They also printed comments of the DC mayor who said, “displaying tanks and heavy equipment was not the American way of honoring the military.” Somebody must have flunked American history. 

So thank you, President Trump, for fulfilling the hope and desire of John Adams. I enjoyed every minute of it and it made me thankful to be an American.

Ralph Miller