When the United States of America celebrated the 200th anniversary of its founding in 1976, celebrations and commemorations decked out streets in red, white, and blue, with American flags flying everywhere and patriotic parades in nearly every major city and small town across the country.

Country legend Johnny Cash served as the Grand Marshal of the bicentennial parade in Washington, D.C. President Gerald Ford sailed down the Hudson River to greet hundreds of warships and old vessels from America’s past waiting in New York Harbor. Revolutionary War reenactors recreated George Washington’s legendary crossing of the Delaware River, a recreation which has since become a staple of Independence Day celebrations over the last nearly-50 years. Disneyland in Los Angeles and Walt Disney World in Florida regularly presented “America on Parade,” a lengthy, elaborate, twice-daily parade and fireworks show celebrating and honoring American history and culture.

Fifty years later, things are different. A Coca-Cola commercial from 1976 has been making the rounds on social media. Depicting Americans celebrating their national heritage with Revolutionary War soldiers marching through the streets of the ’70s waving the original American flag and men in seersucker suits and boater hats, adorned with red, white, and blue ribbons enjoying glass bottles of Coca-Cola as patriotic cheerleaders march past wearing Uncle Sam-style hats, the resurfaced video has garnered mixed reactions from the patriotic American corners of social media. “The past is a foreign country,” one post laments. “The world you were born in no longer exists,” reads one comment, alongside a photo of the Twin Towers. Another social media user, who identified himself as nearly 60, wrote, “I remember the Bicentennial. It was such a big deal! Things were being prepared months in advance. Lots of excitement. We’re only weeks away from 250. It seems like Americans are just hanging their heads now.”

Many responses to the video evinced sadness, mourning the spirit of patriotism that seems now lost. Quoting Republican author and presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan, one user wrote, “In half a lifetime, many Americans have seen their God dethroned, their heroes defiled, their culture polluted, their values assaulted, their country invaded, and themselves demonized as extremists and bigots for holding on to beliefs Americans have held for generations.” Another user wrote, “Something as simple as an old commercial shouldn’t be radicalizing.” Others, however, have encouraged a more hopeful view. “Don’t let old footage demoralize you. Use it as motivation. Decline is a choice. So is restoration. Patriots must get active,” the John Birch Society urged. Senator Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) posted, “Bring it back. The Spirit of 76. An unapologetic love for America.”

On one point, at least, both those who mourn the loss of a society alive with love of their nation and those who encourage a return to the laws and principles which created such a society agree: The America of 1976 was far more excited and far more prepared to celebrate the nation’s bicentennial than the America of 2026 is to celebrate the nation’s semiquincentennial.

Why is that? Certainly, America is more politically divided now than it was 50 years ago, but perhaps not by much. While left-wing activists may be plotting yet another round of “No Kings” protests against President Donald Trump and pro-immigration activists riot outside of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities, Americans celebrated the bicentennial shortly after the Watergate scandal rocked the nation, casting serious doubt on the trustworthiness of government institutions. The 1970s also saw radical groups like the Weather Underground bomb the U.S. Capitol Building (1971), the Pentagon (1972), a New York corporate office building (1973), and the U.S. State Department headquarters (1975), while raucous, violent anti-Vietnam War protests were still fresh in the memory of many. Desegregation initiatives sparked protests and riots. Democratic presidential candidate and Alabama Governor George Wallace, a segregationist populist, was shot in an attempted assassination at a campaign rally in Maryland in 1972. Court-ordered busing to desegregate Boston schools was met with dozens of riots over the course of 1974, requiring police and National Guard intervention. Two separate assassination attempts were made against the president in 1975.

Political division today may be more widespread, with fundamental matters of life and death — such as abortion or mass immigration — playing a larger role in political discourse and division in 2026 than in 1976, but it’s no more extreme than it was 50 years ago. Demographic change has also played a role, with mass immigration over the last 50 years flooding America with foreign nationals who have no ties to the nation and little reason to celebrate her founding and achievements. Progressive activists have also spent the last five decades entrenching their ideological rot in major American institutions, peddling shame, self-loathing, and distorted histories to the American people in classrooms, in newspapers and magazines, and on television screens.

These are failures over the course of decades. But one major failure contributing to the dearth of patriotic displays this year is that the congressionally-mandated committee tasked with planning the semiquincentennial celebration has spent the past decade doing little more than bicker and waste taxpayer dollars, planning nearly nothing to celebrate America’s birthday.

America 250

In 2016, then-President Barack Obama signed legislation forming the bipartisan U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, the body in charge of planning the federal celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The commission is comprised of 16 commissioners chosen by party leaders in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, including eight members of Congress and eight private citizens. The president then chooses a chairperson.

The commission’s current makeup includes Senators Alejandro Padilla (D-Calif.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Reps. Dwight Evans (D-Pa.), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), and Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.), financier Reginald Browne, New York Democratic bureaucrat Tonio Burgos, Trump campaign manager and Fox News personality Kellyanne Conway, Wisconsin educator Val Crofts, businessman Daniel DiLella, former congressional staffer Cathy Gillespie, Obama-era Treasury Secretary Rosa Rios, theatre producer Paul R. Tetreault, political science professor Lucas Morel, former Rep. Bob Brady (D-Pa.), journalist Noah Griffin, former Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), Kennedy family member Jack Schlossberg, lumber tycoon James W. Rane, Hillsdale College professor Wilfred M. McClay, and former President General of the Daughters of the American Revolution Lynn Forney Young. Former commissioners include Senators Bob Casey, Jr. (D-Pa.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), Reps. Pat Meehan (R-Pa.), George Holding (R-N.C.), lobbyist and former Biden administration official David Cohen, historical author James L. Swanson, former basketball player Grant Hill, academic and former Biden administration official Amy Gutmann, union leader Richard Trumka, and Samuel Adams beer tycoon Jim Koch.

The early work of the commission centered on soliciting ideas, developing a preliminary program, and attempting to build relationships with corporate donors and sponsors. During his first term, Trump pressed the commission to focus more heavily on celebrating American heritage and partnering with historical organizations and societies, instead of emphasizing the commission’s stated “theme” of “inclusion.” Under Trump’s direction, the commission selected the American Battlefield Trust, then known as the Civil War Trust, to serve as its nonprofit administrative secretariat. Trump also appointed the 1776 Commission, a patriotic education initiative, to serve as an advisor to the commission. His successor, Joe Biden, promptly reversed the order, which Trump put back in place upon reclaiming the White House in January 2025.

Once Trump left office in 2021, the commission quickly devolved into infighting, with various members resigning, accusing one another of sexism, and clamoring for more “diverse” membership, leadership, and programming. Programs initiated by the commission under Biden included LGBT “storytelling” initiatives and suggestions such as highlighting figures like freed slaves and abolitionists over figures more central to America’s founding, like John Adams or Thomas Jefferson. The Columbia Bugle reported, “The Left was going to use America 250 as a new founding for their woke republic. Harriet Tubman on the money. Rainbow flags flying from every pole. Statues toppled. DEI anti-white discrimination codified forever. All to a soundtrack of Kamala Harris cackling.”

Those plans, the online outlet reported, were thwarted when Trump was reelected in 2024. Programs that the commission did enact included a time capsule, a New York-based initiative promoting community service volunteer hours, multiple student essay and artwork contests, and something called “America Waves,” encouraging people to fly American flags.

According to its annual reports to Congress, the commission has been allocated over $80 million in taxpayer funds since 2019.

Freedom 250

In response to the commission’s failure to plan or organize any significant celebration of the 250th Independence Day, Trump established the White House Task Force on Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday, nicknamed Freedom 250, on January 29, 2025. Freedom 250 had just over a year to plan events, including the Great American State Fair on Washington, D.C.’s National Mall and an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fight on the lawn outside the White House.

A series of concerts originally planned saw performers — including rapper Young M.C., funk band the Commodores, country singer Martina McBride, and rock singer Bret Michaels — pull out from the event, claiming that they did not want to be affiliated with the Trump administration. Rapper Vanilla Ice is the only performer who has not withdrawn from the event. “I’m proud to be an American. I was born here and raised here, and this is my country. I really don’t like anybody telling me I can’t be proud of it,” Vanilla Ice told CNN when asked why he hasn’t abandoned the concert. “This is a huge honor, to play the birthday. It’s once in a lifetime, 250. So I’m honored.”

Freedom 250 will also unveil the Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota; host an international naval parade in New York Harbor; present parades, educational programs, and reenactments of key moments in the lives of American presidents at the base of Mount Rushmore; and celebrate Independence Day with a parade, speeches, Air Force flyovers, and fireworks display in the nation’s capital.

“Trump is taking 250 flak from willfully ignorant critics. Thanks to Trump, there’s currently a Great American State Fair being built on the National Mall, complete with state pavilions and a big Ferris wheel,” the Columbia Bugle wrote, in response to criticism of Trump’s efforts to celebrate Independence Day. The online outlet added, “Remember: The only reason that America 250 is a celebration, and not a lame apology tour, is because Donald Trump is President.”

Journalist and Trump ally Jack Posobiec commented, “It’s clear the people sniping at Freedom 250 haven’t taken the time to look into anything. … America 250 spent 10 years planning a wokefest apologizing for our nation, staffed by leftists. … Freedom 250 had less than a year to put anything together & big events are complex.” He added, “[O]nce again, I note that most of the people sniping at Freedom 250 have no idea what the situation is and haven’t held large events before. Everything seems ‘so easy’ until you try it.”