The long sun and firework-filled weekend of Independence Day has officially kicked off, and before you crack a beer or fire up a burger — you might want to take a moment to remember why this country is so great.

BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey of “Relatable” hasn’t forgotten, and despite knowing that our country is imperfect — she’s well aware that perfection isn’t required to be great.

“We have learned probably more than ever over the past few years how corrupt so many of our leaders are. Our bureaucratic state has turned itself in many ways against its own people,” Stuckey says.

“And so I celebrate America, not because she’s perfect, not because she does no wrong, not because there aren’t some really, really big things to change and to fight for, but because I believe that the values upon which we were established are the greatest values that a country could be founded on,” she continues.

“The idea that all men were created equal, the idea of inherent rights that come from a creator whose authority is transcendent and supreme and above the government. The idea of self-governance, of freedom of speech, of freedom of religion. There is no other country in the world that has championed these things as well as the United States,” she adds.

And while these are the ideas the United States was founded on, they’re only here to stay as long as we continue to fight for them.

“It takes vigilance, it takes dedication, it takes commitment on our part to make sure that we are keeping those things. I mean, it takes, really, a constant struggle, to ensure that liberty is passed down from one generation to the next,” she explains.

“God has placed us here and now, specifically, and with purpose. And that purpose is, of course, to glorify Him, to serve him with joy, and with excellence. But part of that obedience to God is to ensure that we are making better every sphere that we occupy, that we are infusing every sphere of life with as much light and as much truth and as much goodness as we possibly can,” she continues.

“This is what Christians have done for thousands of years, not just engagement in politics and culture, but also through the creation of charities and organizations and all different kinds of entities that have served the human race,” she adds.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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President Donald Trump’s return to the White House came with a commitment to resolve the United States’ illegal immigration crisis. In response, Democratic state and city leaders scrambled to strengthen protections in their jurisdictions against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.

Despite the left’s campaign to thwart Trump’s deportation efforts, sheriffs in conservative counties within those blue enclaves are seizing the opportunity to cooperate with federal immigration officials, particularly to deport illegal aliens charged with violent crimes.

‘Those who will not help the federal government enforcing the immigration laws are un-American.’

Sheriff Bob Songer, Klickitat County, Washington: Defying ‘unconstitutional’ sanctuary laws

A Washington sheriff has repeatedly vowed to defy the state’s “unconstitutional” sanctuary laws to help ICE remove dangerous illegal aliens.

Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer, who describes himself as a “constitutional sheriff,” stated that he would tell border czar Tom Homan to put him “on speed dial.”

“You call me,” Songer said in March. “We’ll be there to assist ICE in a New York second. Because by doing that, we’re protecting the citizens of our county.”

During an interview with Fox News Digital, he pledged to “cooperate with ICE 100%.”

He slammed the left for claiming that illegally entering the country is “a civil infraction.”

“That’s bull. It’s a crime under federal law,” Songer said.

He blamed the “Biden cartel” for “purposely” fueling the illegal immigration invasion by giving up on protecting the border.

“This is in my humble opinion: Those who will not help the federal government enforcing the immigration laws are unamerican,” he remarked. “I would consider [them], [in] my personal opinion, enemies of the state.”

RELATED: 40 sheriffs torch Biden-Harris’ open-border policies for unleashing crime and drugs on small-town America

Photo by GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP via Getty Images

Sheriff Chad Bianco, Riverside County, California: Taking on the state

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, elected in 2018, is leading the fight to end similar sanctuary policies in California by joining the City of Huntington Beach’s lawsuit against the state, Governor Gavin Newsom, and Attorney General Rob Bonta.

The complaint, filed by America First Legal, argues that sanctuary policies “unlawfully shield illegal aliens, and threaten public safety.”

Bianco told the Desert Sun that California’s SB54 was “designed to protect criminals in jail from being deported.”

California is reported to have the largest population of illegal immigrants, exceeding 2 million.

In February, Bianco announced his plans to run for governor to take Newsom’s place. The sheriff argued that the state is “heading down the wrong track and has been for years.”

“He’s supposed to be the leader of this state,” Bianco said of Newsom, who will not be running for reelection because of term limits. “The reality of Californians is, we all know this (increasing drug addiction, homelessness and property crime) is a mess. Everyone knows it’s a mess, including Sacramento.”

RELATED: Sheriff vows to break California’s sanctuary law by alerting ICE about violent illegal aliens

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

Maryland sheriffs: Holding the line

State and local law enforcement agencies, including those in Democratic strongholds, can partner with ICE through the 287(g) program, which allows non-federal departments to “enforce certain aspects of U.S. immigration law.”

This program, particularly under Trump’s second administration, has kicked up controversy. County sheriffs in Maryland led a tense battle with local Democratic leaders to cooperate with ICE.

Sheriff’s offices in Cecil, Frederick, and Harford Counties have had agreements with federal authorities for years, the Baltimore Banner reported. Just two months into Trump’s second term, several more sheriff’s offices — Carroll, Garrett, and Washington Counties — agreed to join ICE’s 287(g) program.

Alarmed Democratic state lawmakers proposed House Bill 1222, the Public Safety – Immigration Enforcement (Maryland Values Act), which aimed to prohibit local law enforcement from entering into partnerships with ICE.

RELATED: Florida to increase number of officers who can help feds arrest illegal immigrants

Photo by John Moore/Getty Images

The Maryland Sheriffs’ Association criticized the bill, arguing that the ICE programs have provided “critical tools to prevent threatening individuals from re-entering our communities.” The association contended that the legislation “undermines the authority of local jurisdictions.”

“If the 287(g) program is not right for certain counties, they have the authority to choose not to enter into such agreements,” the Maryland Sheriffs’ Association stated. “HB 1222, however, imposes a one-size-fits-all mandate that strips local jurisdictions of their ability to make determinations that best serve the safety and well-being of their communities.”

Democratic lawmakers passed a version of the bill, and the governor signed it into law in May. However, not before pushback — including a poll that found 75.7% of Maryland residents support local officials cooperating with ICE to remove illegal aliens who have committed additional crimes in the U.S. — prompted Democrats to remove prohibitions on the 287(g) program. The watered-down legislation allows the sheriffs to continue their partnerships with federal immigration officials, a significant victory for the sheriffs.

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OK, who among us doesn’t have a moment to give Fourth of July props to the cheeseburger?

C’mon! It’s only the most American of our unparalleled collection of all-American foods.

So tell us, dear readers — what are your favorite spots to frequent when the cheeseburger hankerin’ hits you?

But before we get to the cheeseburger, the history of its older sibling — the hamburger — deserves a look as well, and as it turns out, its official beginning is a bit disputed.

So how did ye olde hamburger hatch?

Legend has it that Uncle Fletcher Davis in the late 1880s created the first hamburger at a small cafe on the Henderson County courthouse square — and then “Uncle Fletch” took his creation to the 1904 World’s Fair, in St. Louis, where it was called a “hamburger.” In another account, it’s said that teenager Charlie Nagreen was trying to sell meatballs at a Wisconsin fair in 1885 without much success — until he flattened the meatballs between two slices of bread, and then it was a hit given that folks could carry it around with them. That same year, it’s said that Frank and Charles Menches were short on meat for their sausage sandwiches at the 1885 Erie County Fair near Buffalo, New York — and then conjured up some culinary wizardry after a butcher suggested swapping in ground beef.

Or does Louis’ Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut — which you can still visit — get the nod as the true inventor of the hamburger? (Although, a cheese concoction apparently did start getting added to the one-of-a-kind creation there in due time.)

RELATED: Don’t believe leftist lies. American history IS good.

Photo by: Paolo Picciotto/REDA/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

You can check out a video report below about Louis’ Lunch, which touts that their burgers are still made the same way — no condiments allowed! — and they even use the same 100-plus-year-old stoves in which the burgers are cooked sideways.

RELATED: When American men answered the call of civilization

You be the judge.

But as far as our beloved cheeseburger is concerned, it appears safely accepted that it got its start 101 years ago when 16-year-old Lionel Clark Sternberger was working as a short-order cook at his dad’s restaurant — The Rite Spot — in Pasadena, California, in 1924. Word is that young Sternberger began adding cheese to the patty, which later was dubbed the “Aristocratic Burger: The Original Hamburger with Cheese.”

As you’re well aware, the cheeseburger is fast-food, and after The Rite Spot apparently got things in motion, there are now scads of such establishments all over America that can satisfy your taste buds.

But which one serves the best cheeseburger?

And why?

Is it the quality of the patty? The appeal of the bun? Or is it the chosen cheese? The toppings? The veggies? Bacon or no bacon? Or a combination of all of the above? That answer is, as always, up for debate (psst … it’s In ‘N’ Out), and the final list can change by the day, week, month, and year.

Here’s one breakdown that just may get your stomach churning:

RELATED: Frederick Douglass: American patriot

And do you know of cool cheeseburger spots in your state that aren’t necessarily creations of chain fast-food eateries?

If you don’t, you just may want to check out a few videos that show you just that. Other clips employ variations on that theme and present kingpin cheeseburgers from other vantage points. How about this one?

RELATED: How to really take time off this 4th of July

So tell us, dear readers — what are your favorite spots to frequent when the cheeseburger hankerin’ hits you?

As we’ve proven here, they don’t have to be national, or even regional, cheeseburger joints. One-of-a-kind mom-and-pop outfits count, too. Truth be told, they may even count more.

Finally, do you have any crowd-pleasing cheeseburger recipes you’d like to share with all of us as our grills get fired up today? Let us know all of your secrets in the comments below.

And all hail to the cheeseburger as we celebrate another Independence Day.

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Atrazine is one of the most extensively used herbicides in the United States. On average, well over 70 million pounds of atrazine is sprayed every year on agricultural crops like corn and sugarcane.

This chlorotriazine herbicide — reportedly the most commonly detected herbicide in American tap water — is a potent endocrine and metabolic disruptor linked to numerous adverse health effects including birth defects, cancer, reduced sperm counts, and infertility.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized atrazine as “a surface water and groundwater contaminant that can enter waterways in agricultural runoff from row crops” and “cause human health problems if present in public or private water supplies in amounts greater than the drinking water standard set by EPA.”

Atrazine, first registered for use in 1958 and banned by the European Union in 2004, enjoys continued support stateside by the agricultural industry despite having contaminated thousands of American communities’ water supplies.

Despite years of pushback from concerned citizen and activist groups — including a class action lawsuit against agrichemical giant Syngenta, for instance, which resulted in a $105 million settlement with a number of impacted communities — the chemical compound continues to be sprayed, continues to adversely impact wildlife, and continues to leak into water systems.

That could soon change.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly raised alarm about the herbicide, its ubiquity, and its adverse impacts on various forms of life. While campaigning for president last year, he promised he would ban the chemical outright if given the chance.

‘It’s a gay bomb, baby.’

Now that Kennedy is running both the Department of Health and Human Services and President Donald Trump’s Make America Healthy Again Commission, he can press the issue of atrazine’s ruinous health effects and perhaps even change some minds over at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates herbicides.

The meme

Various activists and advocacy groups have campaigned for decades against atrazine — the use of which farmers claim helps increase production revenue. However, one of the most effective critics in terms of drawing the public’s attention to the herbicide’s undesirable effects appears to have been Infowars founder Alex Jones.

RELATED: Who is bankrolling the anti-MAHA movement?

OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images

In an October 2015 Infowars segment, Jones discussed the Pentagon’s consideration in the early 2000s of a so-called “gay bomb” — a non-lethal chemical weapon that could hypothetically disperse unrelated sex pheromones among enemy forces and trigger homosexual engagements.

Jones segued to atrazine, saying, “What do you think tap water is? It’s a gay bomb, baby.”

What followed has since been memorialized in a myriad of memes.

“I don’t like ’em putting chemicals in the water that turn the friggin’ frogs gay,” said Jones.

‘Atrazine has caused a hormonal imbalance that has made them develop into the wrong sex, in terms of their genetic constitution.’

Elements of the mainstream media appeared desperate to characterize Jones’ viral suggestion about the effects of the widely used herbicide atrazine as ludicrous.

CNBC, for instance, mentioned the chemical-induced changes in frogs second in a top-5 list of Jones’ “most disturbing and ridiculous conspiracy theories.” Jones’ claims about government-executed weather modification, which are well-documented, also made CNBC’s list.

An article in Forbes titled “Alex Jones’ Top 10 Health Claims And Why They Are Wrong” similarly suggested that Jones was off his rocker on the matter of atrazine and sexually impacted amphibians. Forbes not only attacked Jones over his frog remarks but insinuated his claims about weather modification and fluoride’s adverse impact on IQ — which the National Toxicology Program acknowledged as an unfortunate fact in a report last year — were “ridiculous.”

As with weather modification and fluoride’s retarding effect, Jones was sensational in his delivery but right over target.

The studies

In his famous rant, Jones was referencing a study by University of California, Berkeley endocrinologist and amphibian biologist Tyrone Hayes, which detailed how atrazine messed up the reproductive functions of adult male frogs — emasculating three-quarters of them and prompting one in 10 to develop female sexual organs.

RELATED: General Mills to remove artificial colors from cereals. Is chemical linked to infertility next on chopping block?

Debra Ferguson/Design Pics Editorial/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Hayes told UC Berkeley News in 2010, “We have animals that are females, in the sense that they behave like females: They have estrogen, lay eggs, they mate with other males. Atrazine has caused a hormonal imbalance that has made them develop into the wrong sex, in terms of their genetic constitution.”

“These kinds of problems, like sex-reversing animals skewing sex ratios, are much more dangerous than any chemical that would kill off a population of frogs,” continued Hayes. “In exposed populations, it looks like there are frogs breeding but, in fact, the population is being very slowly degraded by the introduction of these altered animals.”

Long before the media tried spinning Jones’ claims as ridiculous, Syngenta, a major manufacturer of atrazine, tried downplaying Hayes’ findings.

According to the New Yorker, Syngenta’s public relations team identified over 100 “supportive third party stakeholders,” including 25 professors, who would defend atrazine or serve as “spokespeople on Hayes.”

‘It’s in 63% of our drinking water.’

While some of the apparent defenders of atrazine have suggested frogs are a poor stand-in for human beings, it’s abundantly clear that the herbicide can also wreak havoc on human health.

For starters:

A 2001 paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives linked atrazine exposure to miscarriages.A 2006 paper in Environmental Health Perspectives linked atrazine exposure to reduced semen quality.A 2011 paper in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Research noted that atrazine was “associated with menstrual cycle irregularity and altered hormones.”A 2011 paper in Environmental Health Perspectives noted that “the presence versus absence of quantifiable levels of atrazine or a specific atrazine metabolite was associated with fetal growth restriction … and small head circumference for sex and gestational age.”A 2018 paper in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health noted “an association between atrazine concentrations in drinking water and the odds of term [low birth weight] births within communities served by water systems enrolled in [the EPA’s] Atrazine Monitoring Program in Ohio.”A 2020 paper in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Endocrinology indicated atrazine might contribute to the development of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.A 2024 paper in Environmental Health Perspectives highlighted associated cancer risks among applicators of atrazine.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Scientific Advisory Panel concluded in a 2011 review of the human health impacts of atrazine that “the cancers for which there is suggestive evidence of carcinogenic potential include: ovarian cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, hairy-cell leukemia and thyroid cancer.”

The panel suggested further that the jury was out at the time regarding associations between atrazine and prostate cancer, breast cancer, liver cancer, esophageal cancers, and childhood cancers.

Despite atrazine’s apparent linkages to various medical issues, the EPA concluded in a 2018 human health risk assessment that “there are no dietary (food), residential handler, non-occupational spray drift, or occupational post-application risk estimates of concern for the registered uses of atrazine.”

Two years later, the same agency stated, “Atrazine is likely to adversely affect 54 percent of all species and 40 percent of critical habitats.”

The MAHA momentum

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has criticized the use of atrazine on multiple occasions.

In September 2024, Kennedy tweeted, “We need to ban atrazine now.”

“It’s banned in Europe, banned all over the world, but we use it here. It’s in 63% of our drinking water,” Kennedy told Jordan Peterson in a September 2024 interview.

“We don’t know what impact it’s having on our children.”

RELATED: BPA is no longer the stuff of baby bottles, but it still might be a big problem

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Kennedy noted on his own podcast in 2022, “The capacity for these chemicals that we are just raining down on our children right now to induce these very profound sexual changes in them is something we need to be thinking about as a society.”

Kennedy’s concerns appear to have followed him onto the MAHA Commission.

The 68-page MAHA Commission report, which came out in May, recognized that “children’s unique behaviors and developmental physiology make them particularly vulnerable to potential adverse health effects” from cumulative exposures to various chemicals. In addition to microplastics, fluoride, phthalates, and bisphenols, the report mentioned crop protection tools, including atrazine, as chemicals requiring further study.

“In experimental animal and wildlife studies, exposure to another herbicide (atrazine) can cause endocrine disruption and birth defects,” said the report.

‘The second policy report will be a prescription for America.’

Despite the commission signaling a desire to ensure “not just the survival, but the prosperity, of American Farmers,” and indicating farmers’ crop protection tools won’t be targeted with further restrictions or regulations without “thoughtful consideration,” the Triazine Network, a coalition of groups involved in the regulation of atrazine, complained that “the assertion in the MAHA Commission’s report that pesticides such as atrazine are responsible for childhood illness is irresponsible, inaccurate, and is not backed by credible scientific data.”

The MAHA Report also struck a nerve with Alexandra Dunn, president and CEO of CropLife America — a trade association of agrochemical companies.

“Pesticides are thoroughly studied and highly regulated for safety,” Dunn said in a statement. “This report will stir unjustified fear and confusion among American consumers who live in the country with the safest and most abundant food supply.”

While it might upset manufacturers of pesticides, recent polling suggests Americans are dissatisfied with the status quo and want a closer look at what goes into their food and drink.

The latest Axios/Ipsos American Health Index poll revealed that 87% of Americans say “the government should do more to make sure food is safe, such as updating nutritional guidelines, adding labels to foods with artificial dyes, or reducing exposure to pesticides.”

When pressed for comment about future plans concerning atrazine, an HHS spokesperson told Blaze News that “after the MAHA Report, the next step is to develop policy recommendations, grounded in gold-standard science and common sense. This report is a diagnosis.”

“The second policy report will be a prescription for America,” continued the spokesperson. “As the report outlines, Secretary Kennedy is committed to thoughtful consideration of what is necessary for adequate protection, alternatives, and cost of production.”

Blaze News reached out for comment to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — which is working on its Updated Mitigation Proposal for atrazine — but did not receive a response by deadline.

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1. We’re incurable optimists

H. Armstrong Roberts/Classic Stock

If you’re on music duty for the barbecue this weekend, don’t overlook “Little Pink Houses.”

The John Cougar Mellencamp classic is a dependable crowd-pleaser because it’s one of those songs people tend to forget they love. At least until it gets to the first “Ain’t that America?” — at which point everybody’s singing along. An essential addition to any patriotic playlist.

Now, some party poopers love to point out that “Little Pink Houses” isn’t really a celebration of America. (They do this with “Born in the U.S.A.” too.) Even Mellencamp himself.

“This one has been misconstrued over the years because of the chorus — it sounds very rah-rah. But it’s really an anti-American song.”

Tell you what, Mr. Mellencamp: We’ll be the judge of that. And as soon as we hear that opening riff, our hearts swell with patriotic pride.

It’s not that we haven’t heard the lyrics. It’s that we don’t feel sorry for the everyday Americans they describe — as we’re apparently supposed to.

Take the black guy in the first verse, with the interstate running through the front yard of his little pink house.

That guy inspired the song. He’s based on a real person Mellencamp saw in Indianapolis, sitting in a cheap lawn chair with a cat and watching the endless traffic go past his front yard.

The most striking thing to Mellencamp was how content the guy seemed. But instead of contemplating this mysterious serenity, he dismisses it as delusional.

“You know he thinks he got it so good.”

Who are we to say he doesn’t? Have you ever seen a better distillation of patronizing, paternal liberalism?

From that simple image, by the way, the up-and-coming singer-songwriter built a top-10 hit and classic rock staple beloved by millions for more than four decades. How’s that for the American dream? The dream “Little Pink Houses” is supposed to “critique.”

Or consider the young man with the greasy hair and greasy smile “listening to the rock and roll station.”

When we hear that verse, we get an intense nostalgic feeling of doing nothing on a lazy summer afternoon before smartphones were invented.

Paradise. He’s young and it’s morning in America. And we’re supposed to think he’s sad that he’s not going to be president?

Forget the self-defeating, sad-sack interpretations. “Little Pink Houses” is about the kind of determined optimism only Americans understand. “There’s winners, and there’s losers,” the song notes. Can you think of a better place to be either?

It’s the pedantic killjoys who miss the point. Yes, we’re taking a tale of ordinary hardship and cheerfully focusing on the good parts until the hardship itself almost seems fun. It’s the American way.

From the moment “Little Pink Houses” hit the airwaves in October 1983, all the Debbie Downers and Gloomy Guses trying to bum us out didn’t stand a chance.

Or as one scold puts it, “Most people simply heard ‘America,’ tuned out the sarcasm, and unfurled the flag.”

Exactly. Sounds like the perfect Fourth of July to us.

—Matt Himes, managing editor, Align

2. We love pulling off the impossible

In “Democracy in America,” Alexis de Tocqueville said, “Democracy is slow and sluggish and inefficient, but once the will of the people is set in motion, nothing can stop it.”

At least, that’s what I remember him saying, but my computer says no. Maybe he said it to me in confidence and I thought I read it in a book.

At any rate, it’s true. Americans are capable of letting the pendulum swing very far into chaos (not as far as South Africa, but almost) before correcting. Chicago went from the frying pan of Lori Lightfoot into the fire of Brandon Johnson. New York City has been choosing progressively worse progressives since Giuliani and currently has its sites set on a spoiled rich kid who thinks he hates money and loves Palestine.

However, after Biden, we got Trump. After letting in more immigrants in four years than Ellis Island did from 1892 to 1954, we got deportations. After praising Antifa and BLM for burning our country to the ground and then condemning innocent J6ers to decades in prison, we we got pardons for the innocent and punishment for the pyromaniacs.

It might feel sometimes that we are losing our country and the pendulum is locked into “slow and sluggish” mode, but Trump should give us hope. If the presidency can be saved, so can the whole country.

Andrew Breitbart always said, “Politics is downstream from culture,” but MAGA is both. Last week a replica of the “Dukes of Hazzard” car was jumped over the downtown fountain in Somerset, Kentucky, as 35,000 people screamed their heads off. It wasn’t just a random stunt. It was a sign. America is becoming great again. We just have to stay the course and have faith.

—Gavin McInnes, host of “Get Off My Lawn”

3. You can’t shut us up

CORBIS via Getty Images

Once upon a time Hollywood loved free speech, the all-American value we need now more than ever.

The 1995 political romance “The American President” ended with a stem-winder by President Shepherd, played by Michael Douglas.

America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You’ve gotta want it bad, ’cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say, “You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.

That was then. Hollywood wouldn’t allow that opinion in a feature film today. The industry recoils over “hate speech,” refuses to defend conservatives banned from social media, and twiddles its thumbs while “sensitivity readers” swarm the publishing ranks.

Oh, and the best and brightest cheered when social media platforms booted President Donald Trump off of their digital turf.

I want that 1995-era Hollywood back. And if today’s version can’t rise to the occasion, a new Hollywood will emerge. It won’t be based in California, mind you, but as technology gives artists the tools to tell their stories their way, new tales will be told across the fruited plain.

Why? Because that’s how America works. Still.

—Christian Toto, film critic

RELATED: America’s Southwest was conquered fair and square

Photo by Nawrocki/ClassicStock/Getty Images

4. We have the need for speed

Bernard Cahier/Getty Images

America, to me, is the land of boundless opportunity, where hard work, creativity, and ingenuity drive progress, from the open road to the factory floor.

Our nation is built on the freedom to chase dreams, like restoring classic cars; driving the type of vehicle you want, where you want and when you want; or pioneering new technologies, all while honoring the values that keep us strong.

For our family, our life is all about cars, auto racing, and restoration. One American who has especially inspired us is the famous car racer, designer, and marketer Carroll Shelby.

In the early 1960s, GT automobile racing was dominated by European brands like Jaguar, Ferrari, and Aston Martin. Shelby, a young Texan who had won Le Mans in an Aston Martin, thought he could make something faster. And he did — putting a Ford V8 engine in a sleek, lightweight body.

For us, Shelby represents American ingenuity, hard work, and never-say-die spirit. He reminds us of the simple, uniquely American freedom of getting behind the wheel of your own car and hitting the open road.

It’s impossible to drive or ride in a Shelby Mustang or Cobra without a big smile on your face; it’s one of those special experiences you don’t forget. We certainly won’t — we named our daughter Shelby.

—Lauren Fix, Align Cars

5. We love a long shot

Joshua Lisec

Scott Adams was working at Pacific Bell and wanted a career change. So he woke up early every day before work to figure out his next step.

Even though he had little artistic experience and no special talent, the career that stuck was newspaper cartoonist. “Dilbert” was born. After almost a decade of grinding it out, he made it the most successful comic strip in the country.

With his MBA and corporate resume, Adams had no business trying to break in to the hyper-competitive world of syndicated newspaper strips. It shouldn’t have worked — but it did. As he writes in his book “Reframe Your Brain,”

Once you realize you’re terrible at estimating the odds of your own success, you’re free to try things you might otherwise not consider. You are allowed to expand beyond your comfort zone without pressure because the only way to know what will work is to test it yourself.

In 2015, Adams noticed another corporate guy attempting an improbable career change. He was the first to predict that Donald Trump would win the presidency. People laughed, but of course Adams was right.

Since then, Adams has gone on to launch a beloved YouTube show, publish a few books, and build a reputation as one of the wisest political commentators and dispensers of career and life advice around.

When Adams announced that he had terminal prostate cancer in May, the outpouring of tributes on X and elsewhere was a powerful indication of how many lives he changed.

Since then, he’s continued to show up for the community he’s built, while acknowledging that he’s on borrowed time. His fans plan on sticking with him to the end.

In the words of Adams’ frequent collaborator, ghostwriter, editor, and publisher Joshua Lisec:

Scott is the original internet dad. It’s obvious to all that basically everyone under 45 or so has the father wound — either from overbearing dads who weren’t helpful in giving quality life advice or dads who were totally checked out while a second-wave feminist mom ran the show. So what’s it like to have a father who wants the absolute best for you and provides you firm yet kind counsel in every area of your life, from career, health, and relationships to how to think productively about politics, religion, and happiness? That’s Scott Adams.

—Matt Himes

6. We’re different but the same

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Order a “hot dog” in New York City and you’ll get an all-beef frankfurter in a natural casing with mustard and maybe some sauerkraut and onions. In Chicago they’ll load you up with everything: yellow mustard, dark green relish, chopped raw onion, peppers, pickles, and tomato — crammed into a poppy-seed bun with celery salt on top.

In D.C. the style is half beef, half pork with chili and onions. In Philadelphia they’ll make it surf and turf by adding a fish cake.

In Cleveland they have the Polish Boy, which is a kielbasa with french fries, slaw, and barbecue sauce. Go to a Colorado Rockies game and you’ll get a foot-long with grilled peppers. Up in Maine they like their dogs bright red.

At Fenway Park they boil and grill them and offer to put baked beans on top. Cincinnati is known for chili and cheese. And in the Southwest, they’ll add salsa, bacon, and pinto beans.

Come to think of it, this is a great metaphor for the big immigration brouhaha these days. Opening the borders to millions of foreigners who have no interest in America except as a nice place to set up their own ethnic enclaves and send money home is like replacing all the hot-dog stands in Albany with samosa carts or kebab trucks.

You want both. And when it comes to hot dogs, you want something recognizably American (a hot dog) but with its own regional spin. Making it their own while still respecting the core elements (frankfurter, bun, toppings) that make it work. That’s the kind of “diversity” this country is built on.

—Matt Himes

7. Show us a frontier and we’ll build on it

Just returned from weekend at Wagon Box. It was great.

Beautiful, intellectual, long conversations, incredible local beef, flow of locals and weirdos interfacing with Substack religo-dorks and scenester art women. A little janky, not everything works right, everything a bit slanted, erratic, and natural. Some things you pay for, some you don’t.

Nobody quite knows the rules. An overtly hostile shouting bartender whom everyone learns to love. Two types of delicious local ale and only three items on the lunch menu. Zero gloss of private equity. A positive and non-hateful crossroads of genuinely strange IRL human connection, contemplation, and discussion.

And most importantly, no policing of thought or language.

When Paul McNiel bought it a few years ago, it was a former biker bar in the woods where hardcore one-percenters would stop on their way around upper Wyoming and Montana. They used to sit on that porch and howl and make trouble all night long, until cultural feminization quelled their activity to a trickle.

And now instead of bikers, it’s a bunch of thinkers and talkers who sit on that porch thinking and talking late into the night, with a lot less meth and a lot less fighting and a lot more plotting and planning to benefit the globe and humankind. It’s a free zone one way or another.

—Isaac Simpson, founder and director, WILL

8. We elected Donald Trump. Twice.

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No modern American president has ever been this fully president before. He is pulling every lever and pressing every button, even ones that haven’t been pressed in decades, if ever. He is dusting off the forgotten control panels and firing up the long-abandoned machines.

It may not be exactly to your liking, but this is the best we are ever going to get in our lifetimes, so enjoy it while it lasts.

—Peachy Keenan, author of “Domestic Extremist”

9. Because it’s worth fighting for

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It’s wild that simply loving America has become a revolutionary act. But since it’s the closest I’ll get to the founding fathers, I’ll take it.

—Lou Perez, writer and comedian

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While it’s easy to get sucked into the festivities of backyard BBQs and dazzling firework displays on July 4, it’s important to remember what we’re celebrating: Our hard-won independence from Great Britain and the establishment of our great nation founded on freedom.

And there’s no better way to do that than revisiting the timeless principles outlined in the document that defined America’s identity and declared her sovereignty. On this episode of “LevinTV,” Mark Levin unpacks key phrases from the Declaration of Independence to remind us who we are as American citizens.

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands, which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel to the separation,” he reads.

“Why do they keep talking about the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God? Because these were men of faith,” he says, noting that even Jefferson and Franklin, who were “deists,” still “embraced Judeo-Christian values” as well as the philosophies of John Locke, who declared that “your right to life, your right to be free doesn’t come from any government” or “from any man” but “from God Almighty.”

“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.”

“In other words, your natural rights, your unalienable rights belong to you, no matter what — even if you live in a tyranny because they’re God-given,” Levin explains.

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, that whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or 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,” he continues reading.

Many today have forgotten that this “is the purpose of government – to secure your unalienable rights, to provide order and law so you can exercise your free will and so your voluntary participation in the civil society increases the benefit of the whole community,” Levin says. And while “we don’t rebel at the drop of a hat” – as “prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes” – we will never “acquiesce to tyranny.”

Levin reminds that, originally, there was a clause in the Declaration of Independence condemning slavery, but it was removed to maintain unity among the colonies, particularly to avoid alienating Southern states where slavery was entrenched, as the revolution required a united front against Britain.

When the founders signed the Declaration of Independence, they knew the risk. “All signed their death warrant because the British wanted to collect every one of them up and execute them,” says Levin, but they signed anyway, “[putting] their lives on the line” to make the America we love today a possibility.

“This is what Independence Day, July 4, is all about.”

To hear more, watch the clip above.

Want more from Mark Levin?

To enjoy more of “the Great One” — Mark Levin as you’ve never seen him before — subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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Fourth of July prices are an effective way to gauge simple cost-of-living markers for the average American. However, one industry that provides a crucial aspect of the holiday celebrations is blaming President Trump’s tariffs for a possible explosion in pricing.

With the S&P 500 hitting a new record just in time for Independence Day, Trump has silenced critics who consistently moved the goalposts on the economy at every turn. First, when Trump’s tariffs were implemented, some analysts predicted a global recession. Then, the marker was meeting pre-Trump numbers, as outlets like Rolling Stone still claim “MAGAnomics” are “destroying the economy.”

For the Fourth of July, not only is the economy moving forward as promised, but almost every Fourth of July staple has gone down in price.

‘Unfortunately, it would take decades to reshore manufacturing.’

A competitive favorite, hot dogs have seen a 2.11% decrease in the last year, according to In2013dollars.com. Citing U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the outlet said the average price for a pack of frankfurters is $5.22 in 2025, compared to 2024, when they were 11 cents higher.

Firing up the barbecue to cook those hot dogs will be cheaper in Trump’s America as well, compared to where President Joe Biden left the economy.

Residential propane is a category that has seen significant fluctuation since 2024, but while prices were in the basement before last year’s Fourth of July, they skyrocketed at the end of Biden’s term.

RELATED: S&P 500 hits new record high following months of Trump tariff doom and gloom

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According to YCharts, propane was $2.39 per gallon in early July 2024 but ballooned to $2.72 per gallon by January 20, 2025. Now, the Trump administration has managed to drop that price by nearly 20 cents per gallon down to $2.52, just in time for barbecues to be fired up.

Driving to that cookout will be cheaper than it was in 2024 also. Data from the Democratic Chronicle shows that on July 1, 2024, the average price for gas was $3.48 per gallon. As of June 23, 2025, however, the average cost has dropped to $3.21 per gallon.

The Trump administration has struggled to keep gas prices down, sitting around 15 cents more than when he took office (per YCharts), but that is child’s play compared to July 4, 2022, under Biden. At that time, the average price across the nation was $4.88 per gallon.

After downing a few hot dogs on the propane-fueled grill, it is typically time for fireworks. Like other items, Americans might be expecting more affordable explosions this year. According to the American Pyrotechnics Association, though, consumers can expect tariffs to greatly increase the cost.

In a statement to Blaze News, the organization said that while prices may vary depending on whether an importer or retailer was stocked before the tariffs hit, the “real concern” is how the tariffs will impact both supply and costs for the Christmas and New Year’s season, as well as Fourth of July 2026.

Data provided by Executive Director Julie L. Heckman said that U.S. fireworks companies rely almost entirely on China for their fireworks, which produces 99% of the consumer market and 90% of professional display fireworks.

Therefore, the “APA is urging the Trump administration and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to consider tariff exemption or a more manageable tariff rate for fireworks.”

When asked if she would advocate for fireworks manufacturing in the United States, Heckman provided a bleak answer.

RELATED: Male prostitutes and pastries: Your tax dollars at work

“Unfortunately, it would take decades to reshore manufacturing in the U.S. Manufacturing fireworks, which are explosives, is extremely dangerous and [requires] highly skilled workers,” the APA executive said.

Heckman added, “It’s also very laborious, as fireworks are all made by hand — there is very little automation. … Even if the U.S. brought some fireworks manufacturing back, we’d never be able to produce the volume of fireworks consumed annually.”

A fireworks retailer from Michigan disagreed with the idea that tariffs would cause prices to go up, saying most retailers ordered their stock for 2026 even after the tariffs were announced.

Brian Schaefer told WXMI that blaming tariffs is simply a marketing ploy to increase prices.

At the same time, Aaron Snowden, a retailer from Phantom Fireworks, told WXMI his company expects prices to increase next year.

No matter how these prices end up in 2026, it stands as a simple fact that this year, prices are down on the Fourth of July in Trump’s economy, especially for those hitting the gas.

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This week, my university emailed a Fourth of July reflection that caught my attention. It claimed the “backbone of our independence” is entrepreneurship and praised secular universities as the seedbed of innovation — and, by extension, democracy itself.

I’m all for business. Enterprise, creativity, and free markets foster prosperity and reward initiative. But business doesn’t create liberty. It depends on liberty. Markets flourish only when justice, rights, and human dignity already exist. In other words, business is a fruit of independence, not its root.

Our freedoms — legal, political, scientific, and economic — grow best in soil nourished by the belief in human dignity grounded in something greater than man.

As we celebrate Independence Day, it’s worth remembering the true foundation of American freedom. The Declaration of Independence doesn’t just announce our break with Britain — it explains why that break was just. “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” it says, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”

That single sentence tells us where rights come from: not from governments or markets, but from God. Human equality doesn’t rest on ability, wealth, or status — qualities that always vary. It rests on the shared reality that each of us bears the image of the same Creator.

This truth isn’t just historical. It remains the cornerstone of liberty. Without it, terms like “human rights” or “justice” collapse into slogans. If rights don’t come from God, where do they come from? Who gives them? And who can take them away?

Contrast our Declaration with the United Nations’ 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That document says people “have” rights — but doesn’t explain why or where they come from or why rights matter. It invokes no Creator, no image of God, no natural law, no self-evident truth or moral source beyond political consensus. Rights, it suggests, are whatever the international community agrees they are.

That’s a dangerous idea. If rights come from consensus, consensus can erase them. If governments or global committees grant rights, they can redefine or revoke them when convenient. There is no firm ground, only shifting sands.

Many Americans now prefer this softer, godless version of human dignity. They invoke justice but reject the Judge. They want rights without a Creator, happiness without truth, liberty without responsibility. But rights without God offer no security — and happiness without God dissolves into fantasy. It’s a mirage.

This project of cutting freedom off from its source cannot last. Our freedoms — legal, political, scientific, and economic — grow best in soil nourished by the belief in human dignity grounded in something greater than man.

RELATED: The most memorable epocha in the history of America

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We live in God’s world. That distinction matters. A society built on contracts negotiates rights. A society built on covenants honors obligations to the truth. The difference isn’t just theological — it’s civilizational.

By rejecting the Creator, we don’t advance progress. We erase the foundation that made progress possible. C.S. Lewis put it this way: “You cannot go on ‘explaining away’ forever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away.”

Explain away God, and you explain away the reason rights exist.

So this Independence Day, remember what liberty really means — and what sustains it. We’re not free because we said so. We’re free because we answer to a law higher than any court or committee. We are created equal because we are created — period.

Entrepreneurship has its place. But the American experiment wasn’t born from a business plan. It began with a declaration that acknowledged God. If we want that experiment to endure, we must not forget what made it possible in the first place.

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Over 30 members of the Democrat-dominated California legislature signed a letter last month urging Republican congressional members from the Golden State “to request the President to end the crackdowns on hardworking, taxpaying immigrants in Southern California and throughout the state, as the actions are causing significant harm to our economy.”

The June 18 letter noted that over one-quarter of the state’s residents are “immigrants, totaling nearly 11 million people, including about 1.8 million who are undocumented,” and suggested that “the vast majority of these folks contribute to California’s economy and way of life.”

For the first time in its history, California lost a seat in Congress in 2021, down from 53 to 52 following the 2020 census.

Those migrants, both legal and illegal, also contribute to the state’s headcount in the decennial census.

While California Democrats might be genuinely concerned about the potential impact of losing low-wage foreign laborers who stole into the homeland, they also have cause to be concerned about what their party stands to lose as a result of a population decline precipitated by immigration enforcement.

As California is the most populous state in the union, it presently enjoys the most representation in the U.S. House of Representatives. However, for the first time in its history, California lost a seat in Congress in 2021, down from 53 to 52 following the 2020 census and a year marked by a drop in the state’s population by more than 182,000 souls.

Owing to California’s anemic population growth and significant growth elsewhere in the country, the state could lose additional seats in Congress and votes in the Electoral College through census-driven apportionment, as well as receive proportionately less of the federal money that is distributed by population.

RELATED: Build back better? Then stop outsourcing our agricultural soul

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Citing December 2023 U.S. Census Bureau population estimates, the Brennan Center for Justice indicated in a report that California could lose four congressional seats after the 2030 census, and may fall to second place behind Texas in total population before 2040 if current trends continue.

“Based on the most recent trends, Texas would gain four seats and Florida three seats in the next reapportionment, placing Texas within striking distance of becoming the largest state, perhaps as early as 2040,” said the report. “Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee also would each gain a new congressional seat, as would three mountain states: Arizona, Idaho, and Utah.”

In a December update, the Brennan Center noted that “these big apportionment changes would also significantly change political parties’ Electoral College math starting with the 2032 election.”

Even if a Democrat carried the so-called blue wall states and both Arizona and Nevada, they would eke out only a narrow 276-262 victory in 2032 if the Brennan Center’s projections are correct.

RELATED: JD Vance rejects Democrats’ narrative, names the ‘real threat to democracy’

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While the American Redistricting Project changed its forecast of California congressional seat losses from five to three, the Democratic stronghold’s dominance still appears to be waning.

California has hemorrhaged residents to other states in recent years, though CalMatters noted that the intranational population loss is offset by inbound international traffic.

Democrats’ dominance could be undermined further not only by the Trump administration continuing to remove illegal aliens but by the administration slowing down legal immigration into the country. After all, state officials credited the first Trump administration’s immigration policies with helping set the stage for the 2021 congressional seat loss, reported the New York Times.

“If that immigration stops, then that’s going to have some real consequences for our population growth and ultimately for our representation, for sure,” Eric McGhee, a demographer at the Public Policy Institute of California, told CalMatters.

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Although America’s 250th birthday is still one year away, there is a fun, unique, and mathematical fact about this year’s 249th birthday that will help illustrate just how young America is as a nation.

To do that, we can start with the age of President Thomas Jefferson on the day he died — significantly enough, on the day America was celebrating its 50th birthday: July 4, 1826. Jefferson was 83.

Just three 83-year-olds living back-to-back-to-back takes you to the year our nation was founded.

As an interesting aside, our third president was not the only commander in chief whose life was historically tied to America’s birthday. President John Adams also died within five hours of Jefferson on July 4, 1826. Five years later, on July 4, 1831, our fifth president and founding father James Monroe also passed away.

Not to be too maudlin, one president was actually born on the Fourth of July. In 1872, Calvin Coolidge came into the world and would grow up to become America’s 30th president.

RELATED: Yes, Ken Burns, the founding fathers believed in God — and His ‘divine Providence’

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So what does Jefferson’s age of 83 have to do with this year’s national birthday celebration? Well, if you find an 83-year-old person living in America and go all the way back to the year he was born, you would find yourself in 1942. Now, in 1942, find a person who was born 83 years in the past, back to 1859. Finally, find a person born 83 years before that, and you arrive at … 1776!

Just three 83-year-olds living back-to-back-to-back takes you to the year our nation was founded.

And while we’re pondering this age business, it’s also fun to look at the relative youth of those who signed the Declaration of Independence, keeping in mind that 56 delegates representing the 13 original colonies actually put their very “lives, fortunes, and sacred honor” on the line when they signed their John Hancock on the document (and, yes, one of them was indeed John Hancock).

Also, with present-day controversy in mind, it is worth noting that none of the representatives signed using an auto-quill.

The average age of the document’s signers was 44 years, which happened to be George Washington’s age at the time. And Washington’s nemesis across the pond, the other George, King George III of England? He was 38.

The oldest signer of the Declaration was (no surprise) Benjamin Franklin, age 70.

Finally, by now you have probably done the math to figure out the age of Thomas Jefferson — the document’s chief author — when he signed: 33.

Now, enjoy the celebrations and get ready for the biggest one of all, next year’s 250th!

Editor’s note: A version of this article appeared originally at American Thinker.

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As we celebrate Independence Day, it’s worth reflecting on America’s founding character — especially the man who defined it: George Washington.

Washington didn’t build his legacy on grand speeches. He led with silence, sacrifice, and restraint. He may not have written poetry, but he lived it — with grit in war, grace in peace, and great wisdom in his letters, journals, and Farewell Address.

This Fourth of July, as fireworks fill the night sky, let’s also make room for silence — for healing, for grief, for endurance.

He didn’t just fight for a nation — he helped shape its soul. Washington understood that a country isn’t defined only by its victories, but by how it makes meaning out of its wounds.

In our time of division and disillusionment, we would do well to reclaim the legacy Washington embodied. Resilience isn’t the denial of pain but rather transformation through it. And the only vision worth holding on to is the one that unites us in building our future as a nation.

Trauma doesn’t end the story. Often, it begins the most meaningful chapters. That’s true in my life — and in America’s. Growth has never come from comfort. It comes from hardship, from wounds we don’t hide from but confront. Psychologists call it “post-traumatic growth.” It’s the idea that suffering, when faced and integrated, can lead to deeper purpose, stronger relationships, and a more grounded sense of self.

I guess most Americans would just call it “history.”

I led soldiers into Iraq in 2003 and returned to a nation largely untouched by the war I had lived. But my reckoning came later — when a brief Wall Street career collapsed, when a home invasion shattered my sense of safety, and when therapy forced me to face what I had tried for years to outrun: trauma, guilt, grief.

What followed wasn’t just recovery. It was transformation — a quiet strength rooted in humility and meaning. Post-traumatic growth teaches that suffering, when faced honestly, can lead to deeper purpose, stronger relationships, and a more grounded self.

That truth doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to us all.

From Valley Forge to Gettysburg, from the Great Depression to Ground Zero, America has been forged in fire. Our greatest progress has rarely come in peacetime. Lincoln didn’t rise when things were easy. The Greatest Generation wasn’t shaped in comfort. Renewal always follows rupture.

We’re in such a moment again. Pressure is building — on our national identity, our personal stories, our sense of unity. But pressure can forge something stronger, if we let it.

We must reject the lie that trauma equals weakness. PTSD is real — often invisible, often devastating. But it’s not the end of the story. Alongside post-traumatic stress, we can teach post-traumatic strength. The kind Washington lived. The kind America has always needed.

That’s part of why I wrote “Downriver: Memoir of a Warrior Poet.” Yes, it tells a story of trauma — from childhood instability to the battlefields of Iraq, from Wall Street collapse to personal unraveling. But more importantly, it traces the long road of healing — not as a tidy comeback story, but as a messy, hard-earned path toward growth and integration.

RELATED: The prayers that shaped a nation can save it again

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The journey is not reserved for veterans alone. It belongs to survivors of addiction, loss, illness, injustice, and personal collapse. It belongs to first responders, caregivers, and ordinary Americans living through extraordinary hardship.

But growth isn’t guaranteed. It requires honesty. It requires community. It demands a culture willing to honor both the warrior and the poet — the one who endures and the one who reflects, the one who fights and the one who heals.

Too often, we swing between denial and despair. But what if we told a different story? What if we treated our national wounds not as signs of weakness but as calls to deepen our roots?

We’ve done it before. The post-9/11 generation gave us new models of service and empathy. The scars of the COVID-19 pandemic will never fully heal, but they can teach us lessons about connection, community, and what really matters.

The question isn’t whether we’ve been wounded. We have. The real question is what kind of country we’ll become in response. Will we let trauma divide us further — or use it to rediscover what binds us together?

This Fourth of July, as fireworks fill the night sky, let’s also make room for silence — for healing, for grief, for endurance. Let’s honor not only what we’ve won but how we’ve grown.

That’s the path of the warrior poet. That’s Washington’s legacy. And it can be ours, too.

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