On June 14, the South Lawn of the White House sprouted a 92-foot steel rig nicknamed “The Claw,” built around a fighting cage so President Trump could host the UFC Freedom 250 on his 80th birthday, a date the administration framed as a kickoff to the nation’s 250th anniversary. Just days earlier, SpaceX’s record-breaking IPO, the largest in history, pushed Elon Musk past the trillion-dollar mark, making him the first trillionaire in history, now richer than the combined wealth of the next four richest people on Earth.
That’s the version of America’s birthday the country was shown. But we, the everyday people, know the version most of the country is actually living in. A survey released this spring found that nearly half of American adults are worried they won’t be able to afford the health care they need. Roughly a third of the country have already skipped meals, rationed medications, or fallen behind on utility bills just to cover basic health costs in the past year. While “The Claw” was being assembled in Washington, North Carolina’s state legislature was finishing years of work dismantling the voting power of the very communities whose labor built this country in the first place.
This is a familiar gap: between state-sponsored spectacle and reality. In this case, we see it between the story this administration tells about this national occasion and the reality of who actually gets to participate in its promise. …
