A Fourth of July Memorial by Geoff Carter

Attribution: Photo by Alex Martinez on Unsplash

(Originally published July 4th, 2025)

By Geoff Carter

Every Fourth of July, we celebrate and honor an idea, a hope, and a dream which has survived two hundred and fify years. It seemed to be an impossible dream, that a nation could function as a free democracy, with lawmakers elected by the people to serve the people; with jurists beholden not to personal or political concerns, but to the law; with a president devoted to serve not himself, but the American people.

It was nice while it lasted. Now, on this Fourth of July in the year 2026, we are on the brink of disaster. Independence Day soon will no longer be a celebration; it will instead be a memorial to what was once a great nation.

We are witnessing the death throes of this noble idea, this dream of freedom and equality born in the bloody birth of the American Revolution. It wasn’t a quick merciful death like a stroke, a massive heart attack, or getting hit by a bus (although some may argue our democracy was thrown under the bus).

But now the symptoms of this disease are coming fast and furious. Washington, D.C., our beautiful capital, is being destroyed. Donald Trump tore down the East Wing of the White House without notice and without authorization. He turned the Reflecting Pool into a swamp. He staged a martial arts cage match on the hallowed grounds of the White House Lawn. He has redecorated the Oval Office with so much gold gilt it looks like a New Orleans whorehouse.

No, despite the onslaught of these attacks, this demise of our democracy has been a long-drawn out illness, and had we been more attentive the warning signs of an ideological cancer, and looking at a post-mortem, it’s easy to see how we might have done more to prevent it.

The symptomology seems fairly straightforward—at least in retrospect. In 1980, we elected President Ronald Reagan who was instrumental in instituting supply-side, or trickle-down, economics, the first step—a gateway policy—that paved the way for slowly escalating economic inequities. Add to that the massive 1981 and 1986 tax cuts, mostly benefiting the wealthy, increasing medical costs, union-busting (see air-traffic controllers strike), a steadily shrinking social safety net, and you have a democracy well on its way to the cancer ward. The tax on Social Security benefits was just another seemingly minor symptom of the attacks on our healthy middle class.

The middle class is not only the majority of our democracy; they are the backbone. They are the sons and daughters of the immigrants who came here to find a better life. They are the citizens who vote, who fight our wars, raise our children, and uphold the values of our society. They are the cops, teachers, firefighters, first responders, and workers that make this country great. Their children go to our public schools to become well-informed and independent-minded members of our society. The middle class personifies the American Dream. But now that, along with the skeletal remains of our democracy, is on life support.

In addition to conservative economic policies, attacks on the middle class has been fueled by the rise of the Christian Nationalist movement which believes that governing principles should be informed by the Seven Mountain Mandate, seven aspects of society that Christians would seek to dominated: family, religion, school, media, arts and entertainment, business, and government (USA Today).

Looking back on the spreading cancer on our democracy, it’s easy to see how attacks on public schools (vouchers and privatization), media (calling it fake news), arts and entertainment (reviling celebrities like Bruce Springsteen and George Clooney who speak out against oppression), and government (the rise of the Tea Party and church-aligned representatives like Lauren Boebert and Tommy Tuberville). This cancer has been growing for years. And it’s not only the Christian militants.

The one-percenters, the ultra-rich and powerful, the avaricious pigs hogging the trough have been metastasizing all across our government. Reagan’s tax policy was only the beginning of their grinding down of the American dream.

Presidents Reagan, H.W., and W. Bush implemented policies that disproportionately favored the wealthy (EBSCO). However, these cuts pale in comparison to President Trump’s tax bills. His 2017 tax law (Center of Budget and Policy Priorities) which benefited households with higher incomes and lowered corporate tax rates. His proposed 2025 tax bill—that he wants to sign on the Fourth of July—would deepen these tax cuts to the rich and powerful while inflating the deficit and also—to pay for these massive cuts—cutting Medicaid and other benefits to the poor and needy.

To ensure that Congress will pass the laws benefiting the Bezos and Musks and other super-billionaires, donors and conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation came up with policies that started whittling at the democratic power base: they donated to the right candidates; encouraged the Tea Party; pushed the Senate to confirm far-right justices like Thomas and Alito and Coney Barrett to the SCOTUS; to bring cases like Citizens United or Hobbs up for judicial review, and—surprise—they get favorable Supreme Court rulings. Be sure to cow the senators and representatives you’ve bought by threatening to primary them if they show any hint of a backbone. Put a narcissistic megalomaniac whose greed exceeds that of Nero, King Midas, and Mr. Creosote and you have a democracy on life support.

So. Happy Fourth of July. This birthday of our nation’s independence has the bitter feel of a birthday for a recently passed loved one. Not that our republic is dead quite yet. We’ve gone through this before. There is a modicum of hope. Just a modicum

As Heather Cox Richardson points out in her June 28^th essay, today’s events parallel almost exactly the passage of the McKinley Tariff Bill of 1890. This was another vastly unpopular bill that benefitted the rich—and underlining their excesses in the process. Its passage resulted in huge Republican losses during the next election—as the people spoke back in anger.

Should Trump’s bill pass, and it looks very likely, the American people must make our voices heard in the next election. But that won’t be enough. This is going to be a long, hard, ugly fight. We need to recognize the enemies of our democracy. It’s not just the man in charge.

As Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez said, “He can stay, he can go. He can be impeached or voted out in 2020. But removing Trump will not remove the infrastructure of an entire party that embraced him; the dark money that funded him; the online radicalization that drummed his army; nor the racism he amplified and reanimated (X)”.

She’s right. Trump is only a symptom of the cancer at the heart of our democracy. Remove that tumor and another will grow.

This Fourth of July can be a celebration, a funeral, or a memorial. The choice is up to you.