1976: The Year Of The Magical Bicentennial

This year, Democrats seem to have sucked the life out of it, but that shouldn’t make us forget that America truly is the greatest and best country in world history.

Vince Coyner | July 12, 2026

I’d wanted to write a post for July 4th, but as so often happens, life got in the way, and I wasn’t able to get to it. So this is my belated 4th of July post, remember a magical Bicentennial.

The year 1976 was chock-full of patriotism. My elementary school made matching red, white, and blue baseball jerseys for every one of us. In TV commercials, Red, White, and Blue were everywhere, with everything from Coke to savings bonds to God—yes, really—represented. And of course, there was the Schoolhouse Rock series that ran for much of the decade, including my favorite, “I’m Just a Bill.”

On the actual 4th of July, I remember sitting on the hood of my father’s Blue FIAT 124 sports car beside the Pentagon and watching the most amazing fireworks over Washington, D.C.

It sounds cliché, but it was a magical time. Patriotism was simply everywhere, with pretty much everyone. Back then, in contrast to the Zohran Mamdani approach, it wasn’t about disparaging our history or challenging our leaders; it was about celebrating America. And contrary to 2026, when TDS has afflicted Democrats, only 27% of whom are proud of being American, with eight states refusing to participate in celebrations on the National Mall, no one had to be convinced to celebrate America.

And there was a lot to celebrate. The truth is that we had no idea how good we had it. Not that everything was perfect, because it wasn’t, but at least back then, we were actually free, largely because government was a relative guppy compared to the leviathan it’s become.

The reality is, Americans in 1976 knew we lived in the greatest country on Earth, and most were proud to call themselves Americans.

And there was much truth to that. I often talk about Western civilization and all that it has brought to the world. And that is true: Western civilization has done tremendous things for humanity. But the truth is, even within Western civilization, the United States has been far and away the single biggest driver of........

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