How Is Trump’s Parade Offensive? Let Me Count the Ways

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Donald Trump’s planned Fourth of July celebration of himself has so many things wrong with it that it’s actually possible to rank them. So that’s what I’ll do, from least objectionable to most.

Two things I won’t rank, however, because they’re unknown at this point despite some serious hints in the coverage. One is the possibility that Trump is allowing (or even arranging for) a fair amount of graft and corruption in how this event is set up. The other is that there’s a very good chance that the event just isn’t well-planned, leaving a fairly large chance of some serious logistical chaos.

But that leaves plenty that we do know about.

I’m not intrinsically upset about the costs of Trump’s extravaganza — which include millions spent out of the federal treasury, plus likely damage to infrastructure in Washington and surrounding areas, plus the very real costs to military personnel and others in having to work on the holiday instead of relaxing and enjoying it. And even the costs to travelers delayed at Washington National.

The costs are upsetting mainly because I think the event is a mistake. I have no problem with the costs of the regular Washington Fourth of July celebration; I generally approve of a fair amount of government spending and nonmonetary costs in the pursuit of celebrating the nation’s holidays, especially this one. Still, it does appear that this is all going to be unusually expensive, and unusually cavalier about inconveniencing both the troops and ordinary citizens.

What’s worse than the costs is turning a nonpartisan celebration of the nation into a partisan event, with the Republican National Committee distributing VIP access to donors. That’s really unfortunate. Washington’s Fourth of July celebration has never been partisan, at least in modern times. And some of Trump’s rhetoric surrounding his event has already included bashing Democrats for supposedly ruining the military before he took office. There’s always a tendency for the incumbent party to hint that it is particularly entitled to the symbols of the nation, but it’s important to keep such tendencies in check. Democracy depends on what’s in many ways a very unnatural willingness to support the government even when it’s filled with one’s political opponents; for that to work at all, the in-party has to at least pretend that it represents everyone. Trump has never accepted that part of his job, and it appears that his Fourth of July will be another example of rejecting it.

What’s worse than the partisanship is the central place of Trump in the celebration. The national holidays of the U.S. simply aren’t about the aggrandizement of the president, and it’s an excellent tradition that presidents typically haven’t taken part at all in the Washington Fourth of July events, much less hijacked them for their own use. It would be bad enough if Trump could be trusted to deliver a bunch of bland patriotic clichés in his planned address to the nation – even if all he did was read the Declaration of Independence – but the record is pretty clear that he isn’t capable of speaking to the nation’s democratic heritage, or in fact giving any kind of speech without his usual bluster and braggadocio. At any rate, the great leader presiding over a militaristic celebration of himself and the nation is what happens in authoritarian regimes, not in democracies.

Which gets to the very worst part of Trump’s Independence Day travesty: putting the military front and center in his vision of the United States. We’ve had altogether too much of this in every context over the last few years, which is pretty much what one would expect from a nation that has been at war for so long. But it’s just wrong for the Fourth of July, which has always been about freedom and democracy and which should be about politics at its best.

Nations that have nothing but military hardware to brag about center their celebrations on tanks and warplanes. The U.S. traditionally celebrates what Jefferson called “the pursuit of happiness” — both the private happiness of personal enjoyment and the public happiness of a shared political culture and a tradition of civic, including political, participation. Trump doesn’t seem to understand any of that as central to the U.S. That he’s inflicting his politics on the military is dangerous; that he’s inflicting his vision of the U.S. as a military nation above all else is dangerous, too.

For those of us who appreciate the real spirit of the Fourth, the whole thing is just indescribably sad.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Philip Gray at philipgray@bloomberg.net

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. He taught political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University and wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

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