A Tale of Two Countries › American Greatness
Roger Kimball
So here we are: July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. For the last several weeks, a crescendo of celebratory events has been building: fireworks without end, day-long flyovers of military aircraft, speeches, parties, and conferences galore. Nor have the celebrations been confined to America. All across the world, spectacular light shows, fireworks, and other red, white, and blue extravaganzas have rung out their grateful and congratulatory chorus. And quite right, too. For the Declaration marked the opening foray of what would become the greatest country the world had ever seen.
At least, that is how a large portion of the world’s population sees it.
Others were more astringent in their reaction. On Friday, July 3, Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s smiling Uganda-born mayor, sat in front of George Washington’s desk in the mayor’s office at City Hall and delivered a dark admonition. Flanked by 10 rather grim-looking newly naturalized immigrants, each of whom clutched a tiny American flag, he folded his hands and dispensed a 1619 Project-style sermon to America on the occasion of its first quarter-millennium.
Centuries ago, Mamdani intoned, ships made their way into New York Harbor. And then what? “They saw land lush and teeming with life. They saw men waiting at the docks to take them into bondage. They saw tenements rife with squalor. . . .”
Who dragged the needle across that spinning record? And so this wretched speech continued. America had great promise, Mamdani admitted. The Declaration enunciated noble ideals. But here on the 250th anniversary of that document, I, Zohran Mamdani, am here to tell you about America’s systemic failures. Strophe: New arrivals “saw merchants peddling their wares on the docks, streets being laid out on a grid, buildings rising into the clouds.” Antistrophe: “They could not yet see the nativism they would face—the jobs they would be refused, the landlords who would not rent to them, and the abject labor and living conditions they would withstand.” Happy birthday, what?
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https://amgreatness.com/2026/07/05/a-tale-of-two-countries-2/
