The 250th anniversary of the American Revolution feels different from the Bicentennial — the Trump administration's appropriation of the celebration has made it partisan, so people who aren't part of that movement feel left out or unwilling to participate.

8:44was 12 or 13 the bsentennial. We had the bsentennial in this country as led by the great Gerald Ford. And I remember that very clearly. There was a mania. Um it was sort of just it felt very much like kind of an undiluted joy about the bicesentennial. You know, the the tall ships came into Boston. I believe the queen visited. I mean, it was just everyone I think felt unified and good

9:13about it. Uh now we have the 250th and there is something interesting that's happening which is some people I think felt that the Trump and the administration kind of grabbed the 250th and made it more about their movement which meant that people maybe who weren't part of that felt left out or felt like they didn't want to participate. We're in a moment right now. We're clearly in a moment in this

9:43country and I think it's very hard for some people maybe to just say um I'm really excited about our 250th uh when our current state is so divided. So yeah, it's a little it's a little strange I think at the moment. And do you think that um the fact that there are people say on the left who will say they should all be cancelled, they were all slave owners, they deserve to be

10:13toppled, it solidifies attitudes on the right that you can't say anything negative about them at all. Yeah, I do think that's probably the case that you know uh and it's probably just natural uh law of physics or chemistry, whatever you want to attribute it to, but when if someone moves farther to the left, someone will else will move farther to the right. It's almost like a a a