250 Years Later, Why We’re Still Fighting About Our Founding

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Michael Barbaro** (0:30)
From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. 250 years ago, the founding fathers gave rise to a new nation and an enduring myth. A myth about their virtue and what that meant about our virtue as a country. Today, my colleague, Jia Lynn Yang, on the evolution of the founding myth, why we're still fighting about it, and why it may hold the key to America's future.
It's Friday, July 3rd. Jia Lynn, it is really lovely to have you on the show.

**Jia Lynn Yang** (1:28)
It's great to be here.

**Michael Barbaro** (1:30)
You are massively overdue to be a guest on the show because for a very long time, you were unbookable as a guest on The Daily because you were the national editor. National editors don't really come on the show.
They tell us which of their reporters can come on the show and that was our relationship with you. Could we please book this reporter?

**Jia Lynn Yang** (1:49)
Yes. I have been a huge fan and it's just so lovely to finally be here.

**Michael Barbaro** (1:53)
Well, now that you're not the national editor, you're a reporter focused on big ideas and big debates in the United States.
As a result, it feels very fitting that your debut appearance on the show comes on the anniversary of the United States turning 250 years old. And on that anniversary, you set out to think about what the 250th really means, and you arrived at what I think is a really surprising answer. So talk about that.

**Jia Lynn Yang** (2:32)
You know, the 250th has been coming up for a while, and in these months leading up to it, it's honestly just struck me as kind of a weird time.

**SPEAKER_5** (2:39)
Crews dismantled plaques telling the stories of the nine enslaved people who lived in the president's house and were owned by President George Washington.

**Jia Lynn Yang** (2:48)
Leading up to this moment, you see this effort by Trump to really sanitize parts of our history.

**SPEAKER_5** (2:54)
Any displays that might be seen as disparaging to America's past.

**Jia Lynn Yang** (2:58)
He has had executive orders saying, you know, we can't mention slavery anymore from, you know, National Park historic monuments. At the same time, we're getting a lot more that's just about Trump in his own image.

**SPEAKER_6** (3:11)
Freedom at the White House on Donald Trump's birthday. What an event.

**Jia Lynn Yang** (3:16)
And so you get examples like, you know, there's a UFC 250th match in front of the White House for his birthday.
You have him unveiling a commemorative special passport now, where it's a passport, but also there is an image of him standing in front of the text of the Declaration of Independence itself with his signature at the bottom. So he's kind of inserting himself into the founding.

**SPEAKER_6** (3:44)
Hello, Washington, and a very big hello to America, thank you.

**Jia Lynn Yang** (3:49)
And this just all is fully realized in the kickoff event itself for the entire 250th.

**SPEAKER_6** (3:55)
In 1776, our founding fathers met in Philadelphia and changed the world forever and ever.

**Jia Lynn Yang** (4:03)
Trump basically does a campaign style rally.

**SPEAKER_6** (4:06)
Just like those patriots of 1776, over the past 17 months, we have taken power back from the far-off political class.

**Jia Lynn Yang** (4:16)
And in this moment, he is just really fully claiming for himself and for the Republican Party the founding.

**SPEAKER_6** (4:23)
Together we stand on the shoulders of incomparable heroes such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln.

**Jia Lynn Yang** (4:35)
He's saying, we're the party that's going to protect the founding, all the mythology about the founders you love, about the country you love. And in doing that, it's really kind of the apex in a way of something that's been happening for decades where the GOP is just saying, this is ours.

**SPEAKER_6** (4:49)
And we will make America great again. Thank you very much. Happy birthday, America. Thank you. Thank you very much.

**Jia Lynn Yang** (5:05)
And meanwhile, on the other side, on the left, I feel like there's almost a kind of silence or awkwardness or just not quite knowing what to do or say in response.