The View from Here

America, you may have heard, is turning 250 this year. But the planned festivities are more late Roman Empire than youngish republic

By Peter Coy

On July 3, 1776, the Founding Father and future president John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, that the signing of the Declaration of Independence “ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.” To that list, Donald Trump has added an IndyCar race through the streets of Washington, mixed-martial-arts fighting on the South Lawn in front of the White House (following a weigh-in at the Lincoln Memorial), and, he hopes, the beginnings of a triumphal arch by the Potomac to eclipse the one that Napoleon ordered erected in READ ON