"Commemorations often tell us as much about the times in which they are being held as they do about the events they are commemorating. The two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence falls at a moment when the nation is being led by a twice-impeached President amid a widely recognized crisis of democracy."
"The most dramatic recent example of political violence came with the frantic apprehension of an armed man in the hotel where the White House Correspondents' Association dinner was being held. The alleged gunman has been charged with an assassination attempt—the third made against Donald Trump in two years."
"Commemoration has been a complicated undertaking in this country from the start. On July 4, 1826, President John Quincy Adams decided to forgo making a major speech and instead rode by carriage in a parade to the Capitol, where he listened to celebratory remarks and a reading of the Declaration."
"The Declaration's insurrectionist contention—that people, when unjustly provoked, have the right to dissolve their government—hung heavily in a country that had just experienced a civil war that left some seven hundred thousand Americans dead."
The two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence occurs amid a crisis of democracy, marked by a twice-impeached President and weakened voting rights. Recent political violence, including an assassination attempt against Donald Trump, underscores the volatile social climate. Historical commemorations have always been complex; for instance, John Quincy Adams chose a subdued celebration in 1826, coinciding with the deaths of his predecessors, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. The centennial in 1876 followed a devastating civil war, highlighting the Declaration's themes of government dissolution.
Read at The New Yorker
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