Raymond J. de Souza: America’s 250th will mark a lesser republic
Fifty years after a graceful waltz with the Queen, America celebrates with a submarine bell and diminished horizons
The U.S. Capitol is seen past American flags on the National Mall, June 6, 2025.Photo by Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
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GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN — The vice presidents were visiting the vice presidents who became presidents, which is what vice presidents aspire to do.
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The visits were a powerful indication, as the United States prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday next Saturday, that America has changed. And not for the better.
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The first of President Donald Trump’s vice presidents, Mike Pence, was in Grand Rapids on Tuesday night, promoting his book, “What Conservatives Believe: Rediscovering the Conservative Conscience.” He spoke at the Gerald Ford presidential museum, on the banks of the Grand River here in Ford’s hometown. Ford and First Lady Betty Ford are buried on the grounds.
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Ford was president for the bicentennial year of the Declaration of Independence in 1976, and his centre is festooned with images of that happy celebration. It was not an entirely happy summer for Ford, as he was battling for his political life against the nomination challenge of Ronald Reagan, whose principal criticism of Ford was that he was not a real conservative. So it was an ironic place for Pence to defend real conservatism. But there are many strange things in the air today, including Trump’s first vice president arguing against the big-government, high-taxing, protectionist policies promoted by Trump’s second vice president, JD Vance.
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Vance, for his part, was at the Nixon presidential library in Yorba Linda, California, on Thursday, promoting his book, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith.” Both Nixon and Ford were vice presidents who became presidents. Nixon followed a two-term president, Dwight Eisenhower, though not right away, and Ford acceded to office when Nixon resigned as president. Vance could plausibly become president either way — running for election to succeed Trump, or acceding to the office if Trump is forced out, one step ahead of impeachments for one or the other of his manifold and multifarious corruptions.
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The Ford museum is recalling the happy days of the 1976 bicentennial with a special exhibition entitled “Waltzing with the Queen.” Elizabeth II made her bicentennial visit shortly after the 4th of July, which included a state dinner at the White House in which she and Ford elegantly waltzed around the East Room. (Actually, it was the foxtrot with a waltzy vibe.) It captured the national imagination and was a powerful symbol of the Anglo-American relationship, converted from warfare (1776 and 1812) to waltzing.
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Her Late Majesty’s visit began in Philadelphia, home of the Declaration. There, Queen Elizabeth presented Ford with a new Bicentennial Bell, weighing six tons and cast at the same foundry as the Liberty Bell. It was inscribed, “Let Freedom Ring.” Banners of that moment have been hung along the promenade outside the Ford museum.
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It was likely that gift from 1976 that King Charles III had in mind when he made his recent state visit to Washington for the semiquincentennial of the Declaration this year. His mother brought a bell, so he brought a bell. That was then, this is now.
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Taking the measure of changed circumstances, instead of presenting the president with a grand bell that literally rang with historic echoes of a new era of liberty, Charles fished out from the detritus of a scrapped WWII-era submarine, the HMS Trump, the small bell which hung on its conning tower. The Royal Navy polished it up to shiny Oval Office standards and the bauble was given to a clearly delighted president. No “Let Freedom Ring” this time — just “Trump.”
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King Charles spoke of the submarine as carrying the name of “your valiant namesake,” figuring that Trump would not object to a lie in service of his grandiosity. The sub was not named after anyone; Navy subs at the time were often given short T-names: Trump, Truncheon, Tiptoe.
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There is a smallness in this year’s celebrations of America at 250, aptly symbolized in the shrinking bells, and shrinking horizons, from continental liberty to conspicuous vainglory. Fifty years ago the president sought to heal a nation after Watergate. Now a president sows division and his vice president argues that the problem with Watergate was not the crime, not the cover-up, but the consequences.
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That was then. This is now. America has changed, and not for the better.
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