Obama and Mamdani Show How It’s Done

This week, we saw two distinct visions of what it means to honor and celebrate the United States.

The first is the one you know, the Ultimate Fighting Championship spectacle in Washington, where President Trump presided over pyrotechnics, blood sport and general mayhem. Ostensibly planned to mark the 250th anniversary of the nation — which, as we all know, was founded by a cadre of mixed martial artists and podcasters — it was in reality a birthday celebration for a president who sees himself as the embodiment of the nation or who, at least, is unable to step out of the spotlight for even a moment.

Billed as though it was for the American people as a whole, the U.F.C. event was not, in truth, for the public; it was for Trump and his most dedicated supporters. With its aggressive machismo and shock-jock sensibility, it was designed to exclude all but the MAGA faithful — and even then, only those who subscribed to Paramount+.

The opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago was not technically an event to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. And yet it had the tone and tenor of a more traditional celebration. There were popular celebrity musicians — Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Bruce Springsteen and the Roots, among others — to perform for the crowds. And our living ex-presidents — George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden — sat in attendance as Barack Obama introduced the center and offered a few words of reflection.

“The exhibits here focus not just on policies, but on the shared values that make democracy possible,” Obama said. “A belief in the intrinsic dignity and worth of all people, and that no one is above the law or beneath its protection. A belief in checks and balances in our government and an accountability that comes with it, an independent judiciary and a robust free press.” And a belief, he continued, “that qualities of character, honesty, integrity, kindness, compassion, a sense of duty and honor, those things matter in our public dealings, just as they do in our private lives.” These values, Obama concluded, are “our greatest inheritance.”

It is not hard to imagine a world where this was the White House message ahead of the nation’s anniversary — a celebration of shared values and our highest aspirations.

I should mention the other moment this week that captured the feelings of unity and jubilation that one would want from an anniversary celebration: New York City’s official parade in honor of the Knicks, celebrating their N.B.A. championship. Countless New Yorkers of every possible background filled the streets of Manhattan, and Mayor Zohran Mamdani delivered a memorable speech that spoke to the resilience of the team as well as the faith and dedication of its fans.

“Over these past weeks, as the Knicks kept winning, our city has come together as one,” Mamdani said. “Neighbors invited neighbors over. Strangers high-fived one another in the street. Subway conductors sang their announcements and bus drivers danced behind the wheel. So often when this city comes together, it is because we are forced to, by a moment of tragedy or adversity. What a gift it is to be brought together by pure, unfiltered joy. For as long as we live, we will remember this feeling of a city together, a city alive, a city overcome by happiness.”

The United States does not have the tradition of the shadow government, but you can think of those celebrations — in Chicago and New York — as shadow commemorations of a sort.

In the absence of a White House administration that values the cosmopolitan and egalitarian aspirations of American democracy, we have these moments that speak beyond the specific circumstances of a professional basketball team or a library to the country at large. It is both a heartening reminder that we have not, as a public, abandoned our highest values, and a sad commentary on the political leaders who have, if they ever believed in them in the first place.

What I Wrote

There were, after the first round of the Los Angeles mayoral election, accusations of voter fraud from the political right. In my column this week, I unpacked those claims and put them in the context of Trump’s election denialism:

The president’s convoluted and false claims about “fraud” were little more than a smoke screen for a more basic claim about who belongs to the community — about who counts as a voter and who counts as a citizen. To say that Democratic victories in Pennsylvania or Georgia were the product of fraud in Philadelphia or Atlanta was to say, in short, that the wrong people were voting. And in the same way that Trump’s “birtherism” wasn’t really about whether Barack Obama was born in the United States, his crusade to “stop the steal” wasn’t about the nation’s election procedures. It was a declaration that the only real voters were his own.

Now Reading

Heidi Blake on Andrew Tate for The New Yorker. (A warning: This piece describes sexual assault and other forms of abuse.)

Clint Smith on the experience of being Black in Pete Hegseth’s military for The Atlantic.

Michael Kazin on why the left needs ideas for Dissent magazine.

Michael Hirsh on the Iran war for Foreign Policy magazine.

Katherine Alejandra Cross on gender and politics for Liberal Currents.

Photo of the Week

I took this a few months ago during a morning stroll through Central Park. I thought the pigeons were a nice touch.

Now Eating: Vegetarian Dirty Rice

My version of this wasn’t entirely vegetarian — I used a stock made from smoked turkey wings and dried porcini mushrooms — but otherwise I followed the recipe as written. And it was delicious! My pro tip is to bake the rice in an oven at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. You’ll get a more even cook. Recipe comes from NYT Cooking.

Ingredients

• ¼ cup neutral oil, such as safflower or canola

• ½ cup finely chopped yellow onion

• ½ cup finely chopped celery

• ½ cup finely chopped green bell pepper

• Kosher salt (Diamond Crystal) and black pepper

• 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, trimmed and finely chopped

• 1 tablespoon minced garlic

• 2 cups long-grain white rice

• 2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning

• 3 cups store-bought or homemade mushroom broth

• 1 (15-ounce can) black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained

• ½ cup thinly sliced scallions, plus more for garnish

• Hot sauce, for serving

Directions

In a large Dutch oven, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil over medium. Add onion, celery and bell pepper, and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are tender and their liquid is absorbed, 5 minutes. Stir in garlic until fragrant, 1 minute.

Add rice, Cajun seasoning, 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper and the remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Stir until well blended, then add broth, scraping bottom of pot to remove any browned bits. Bring to a boil over high heat.

Cover and reduce heat to low. Cook until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Scatter black-eyed peas on top in an even layer, cover and cook 3 minutes longer. Turn off heat.

Add scallions to the pot, and fluff rice with a fork. Divide among bowls and garnish with more scallions. Serve with hot sauce.

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