Is America's 250th birthday celebration too partisan?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is Ira Glass of This American Life. Do you know our show? Okay, well, either way, I'm going to tell you about it. We make stories that hopefully pull you in at the beginning with funny moments and feelings and people in surprising situations, and then you just want to find out what is going to happen and cannot stop listening. That's right. I'm talking about stories that make you miss appointments. This American Life, wherever you get your podcasts.
All right. You may have heard America is celebrating its 250th birthday this year. That sounds like a unifying, patriotic occasion, right? Well, like almost everything these days, it has become partisan. Let's get into it. It's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Myles Parks. I cover voting. I'm Danielle Kurtzleben. I cover the White House. And I'm Tamara Keith, senior political correspondent. Okay, so it's this July 4th weekend, birthday 250 for the country. Tam, there's a lot of events and celebrations going on. Can you walk us through just kind of everything that we're watching for this weekend? There are a lot of things planned, not just in Washington, D.C., but all over the country. There are going to be massive fireworks in New York City.
Also, Taylor Swift is getting married.
What events make up the 250th anniversary celebrations and where are they happening?
There is a huge event happening actually tomorrow at Mount Rushmore. And then the big event is on the National Mall for the 4th of July, a concert featuring sort of a mega group of military bands and choruses, flyovers happening all day with aerial tricks being performed. Actually, the rehearsals were happening today and we heard all. I mean, wow, that was loud. And then a a record breaking or at least that's the plan to have a world record breaking fireworks spectacular here in Washington, D.C., which will be immediately preceded by a Trump rally. President Trump is going to give a speech. And yesterday he gave a little bit of a preview.
And by the way, on July 4th, it's going to be approximately 107 degrees out. And I'm going to go and I'm going to make a really long speech just to show that I can do anything.
I just want to interject and add that as he was giving that speech, I was there. This was in a place called Medora, North Dakota, where he was there to dedicate and open the Teddy Roosevelt Memorial Library. He gave that speech. In the full sun, it was 85, 90, which I know not hot by current DC oven standards. But as he was saying that, I was thinking, Godspeed, man. I was already just dying. I don't know how that's going to work, but let's see how it goes. And he's wearing a full suit. No kidding. Yeah. I will just say, as the Floridian on the podcast here, growing up in 100-degree weather, it's a little less impressive to me, but the full suit does put him over the edge. But I want to drill down a little bit on what exactly is happening, because I'm a little confused, Tam.
I've heard the term America 250 and also Freedom 250 related to different events associated with the celebration. Can you explain that a little bit? Let me try. So many years ago, actually, Congress created the America 250 Commission, which was supposed to be bipartisan and would plan celebrations of America's semi-quincentennial all over the country. And then President Trump was elected and he didn't like what they were doing, didn't think it was good enough, wanted to do his own thing. And so he bigfooted and created Freedom 250, which actually pulled some of the funding and has been putting on. These very big events, including the UFC fight on the South Lawn of the White House and something called the Great American State Fair on the National Mall.
That is ongoing right now. It has been plagued by all kinds of problems, including power outages. The weather is very hot. Not a lot of people are showing up. And immediately when it was announced that there would be a concert series attached to it, artists started pulling out. No sooner were their names announced saying they didn't realize that this was actually a partisan thing that was associated with Trump. And the only artist that really stuck it out was Vanilla Ice, who was supposed to perform last Friday, and then his concert was canceled because of inclement weather.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:18
2
What events make up the 250th anniversary celebrations and where are they happening?
1:18–16:16
3
How did Freedom 250 emerge and how does it differ from the bipartisan America 250 Commission?
16:16–19:50
4
What controversies and operational problems have plagued Freedom 250 events?
19:50–25:57
5
What allegations have congressional Democrats made about Freedom 250's fundraising and access?
25:57–29:07
6
How is President Trump personally branding the 250th and why does that make the celebration partisan?
29:07–30:18