Happy Birthday, America!

I am struck on this 4th of July that today is a holiday for Americans, and that really doesn’t include many of the people inside the Beltway. Oh, inside the Beltway they wave Old Glory like crazy, wear red, white and blue shirts and blouses and loudly proclaim their commitment to “American values” or something equally vague. But inside the Beltway, they look on the Gadsden Flag with a a feeling of uncomfortableness bordering on fear. They see in the Heller and McDonald Supreme Court decisions not a reaffirmation of fundamental American liberties  but the stirrings of some rough beast; in the Tea Party movement they fear a rising of “the rabble,” the unlettered, people who foolishly believe that they are better suited to control their own lives, their own fortunes, than those wise ones inside the Beltway who so obviously know better. They dream of a world of cameras, of papers, of control, a world where American exceptionalism is a failed dream and all the reaffirmed liberties so eloquently stated by the Founders are words, only words.

Out here in the hinterlands we’re celebrating, and part of what we’re celebrating is that for the first time in many many years, America is awake — and angry. So you faux-Americans over in your little enclave keep waving the flag and telling us how much you care — really care — about us little people. Out here in the boonies, a tidal wave is building…

Happy Birthday, America! It’s a great time to live in this country!