Who Owns the Fourth of July?
The Democratic National Committee has a TV ad out this Fourth of July week, depicting a shoulder-slapping Joe Biden as the main reason Americans feel better than last summer. Or as Mr. Biden likes to say, Its simple. The reality of the past year is more complicated. Last Fourth of July, the U.S. was stumbling through the sixth month of the coronavirus pandemic. The guidance given then by the science was to abandon your job or business and go home. The federal government and most governors took the advice of science to shut down the U.S. economy until . . . in fact, science and politics had no good answer on the until part. But in the interest of the common good and self-preservation, most people complied with the unprecedented quarantining of American life and commerce. Meanwhile, in the wake of George Floyds May murder, the social and political life of the country exploded. Hundreds of U.S. cities experienced protests, often organized by a then-obscure group called Black Lives Matter.