In general, I LOVE the 4th of July. It celebrates the adoption by the Continental Congress of one of Thomas Jefferson’s greatest pieces: The Declaration of Independence.

The Declaration was the first formal statement, by a people, asserting their right to choose their own government. Read that again. The Declaration was the first formal statement, by a people, asserting their right to choose their own government.

We were, with the Declaration, and again with the US Constitution, a nation of firsts. I like to go to the National Constitution Center. One of my pick fave things to do is to go up to the second floor, to the front of the building, out onto the balcony, and look south across Independence Mall, to Independence Hall, where the Constitution was written. I think of the men who negotiated and finally agreed to this marvel that made us a country of laws. They were guilty of treason against the Crown, as America was still part of Great Britain. They, and all the men, women and children who stood up, offered their lives so that going forward, we could breathe free.

In addition to my love of the history of the 4th, I like the day itself, usually. I don’t have to go to work, and yet my employers pay me. This is because of my grandmother and all the other people who fought and won so that we could have unions…and it was unions that gave all of us things like paid holidays, and restrictions on child labor, and like that. YES! I know the fight for workers rights is not over. But I’m lucky – I get the day.

We fire up the grill, and I make my World Famous Macaroni Salad. What? You don’t know it? That’s just because you haven’t had it yet, little shells with lemon dressing resplendent with fresh local produce. At night, we walk to the fireworks in the nearby park, and often I register voters during the concert that precludes all the pretty sky decorations. (Yeah, can’t help myself…)

But this year is different.

The Orange Menace has brought tanks into DC. Thankfully, they’ll be stationary. There will be flyovers in P56, the airspace above most of DC that will get you shot out of the sky. There will be “honored guests” AKA huge GOP donors. Such a difference from a normal city celebration open to all with music and laughter. The protesters will all be wearing John McCain shirts. You can buy yours here. The shirts are made by Vets, and the money goes to Vote Vets and Rags of Honor – two legit veterans charities.

This is a disgrace (the Angry Creamsicle, not the shirts). You put on a military spectacle for one of two reasons: first because your country won a right and just war and you’re welcoming back the soldiers. Normally this is a parade. Think of 1945. The second reason is because you’re a second rate power and you want to pretend that you’re a first rate power. Think North Korea.

It reminds me of people who will never be funny trying to tell jokes. They can’t compete, so they pose.

But this is actually far worse, because this is a show of force, and it’s NOT to show the world that the US is a first rate military power. Which we generally are. Sigh. This is Cadet Bone Spurs saying to US, the people of the United States of America, that he has a military and if he wants to, he will come for us. The parallels to Germany in the 30’s are striking and terrifying. We’ve got camps, and they are filled with people who are not in Screaming Carrot Demon’s view “like us”. Think about the difference between the Klan and the Aryan Nation….can’t find daylight? Me either.

For the Tangerine Tornado, this is something that matters as a paean to himself. Face it, he’s not really a president, he’s an angry old geezer who yells at the TV all day. The one thing he cares about is the size of the crowd. I’ll bet everything I’ve got that he has never read the Declaration nor the Constitution, nor ANYTHING that has to do with American governance.

I think of Hong Kong and its recent protests. 15% of the total population out in force to say “NO”, to say “ENOUGH”, and mostly to say “Democracy is worth fighting and dying for.” And it may well come to that here, too.

So tomorrow (or today if you’re reading this on the 4th) – go out and celebrate what America WAS before the onslaught of the Trumplethinskin regime. And it is a regime not an administration. The distinction matters. Read the Declaration. Yeah, again. Especially this part:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Enjoy the day and then commit to doing everything necessary to remove the current regime. I’m not advocating a coup, but rather, voting in the elections this year and next, giving til it hurts to groups like the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, RAICES, SPLC and the others that are on the front lines of fighting within the law for the rights of humans. And finally, doing all you can to educate others so that they will become engaged and active in ousting Creep Throat and his minions legally and non-violently,