A country 250 years old deserves better than this.
I try to stay measured. I do. Most of the time I can look at something frustrating in the news cycle, sigh, and move on. But every once in a while something happens that is so profoundly disconnected from reality — so breathtakingly self-centered — that I have to say something. This is one of those times.
In case you missed it, this is the story: a string of artists were booked to perform at the Great American State Fair on the National Mall this summer. It’s a marquee celebration of America’s 250th birthday. It’s a huge moment in the nation’s history.
Unfortunately, many people — celebrities included — either misunderstand or flatly reject that reality. They feel no pride in their homeland, and certainly no gratitude for it. And yet they are passionate, even furious, about how broken and terrible it has become.
At least for me, this raises an obvious question: if you love something that’s falling apart, don’t you fight for it? Don’t you show up for it? Don’t you use whatever platform, whatever moment, whatever reach you have to pull people together rather than drive them further apart?
Here is a moment — a rare, genuinely unifying moment — sitting right in front of you. A national birthday. Common ground that belongs to everyone. A chance to model exactly the kind of above-the-politics decency you claim to believe in. And you can’t walk through the door?
You say America is broken. You say partisanship is the disease. And then you stay home because of a partisan grievance. That’s not conviction. That’s contradiction.
It’s insanity.
Martina McBride. Bret Michaels. The Commodores. Morris Day and The Time. Young MC. One by one, these performers — who had signed on for the event long ago — pulled out. Their reason? The event is tied to the Trump administration. It’s political. They didn’t sign up for that.
When I first heard this, I actually had to sit with it for a minute because I couldn’t believe what I was processing. You are refusing to celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States of America. Because of one man.
Let that sink in.
Let’s Be Honest About What This Actually Is
Some of the artists said they were misled — that they thought it was nonpartisan and then found out it was connected to Freedom 250, a White House initiative. And fine, I’ll grant that there’s some legitimate confusion here.
There are two organizations: America 250, established by Congress in 2016 as a nonpartisan commission, and Freedom 250, created by executive order under the current administration. That’s a real distinction and a real organizational mess.
But here’s where I stop granting grace, because the moment the conversation shifted from “we were misled about the organizer” to “we cannot celebrate America because Trump will be there,” we crossed a line that has nothing to do with logistics and everything to do with ego, tribalism, and a staggering lack of perspective.
Bret Michaels said what was presented as a celebration “evolved into something much more divisive.” The Commodores said they choose not to “publicly affiliate with any single political party.” Martina McBride said the opportunity turned out to be “misleading.”
I hear those words. I understand the optics they’re managing. But I want to ask every single one of them, directly:
Is America’s 250th birthday divisive? Or are you making it that way?
The Common Sense Argument
Let’s do a simple thought experiment — the kind that immediately exposes whether a position is principled or partisan.
If Joe Biden were president right now, and his administration had organized a birthday celebration for the country on the National Mall, would any conservative artist have pulled out and said, “I can’t be associated with this because Biden endorses it”?
Of course not. Because that would be utterly, absolutely ridiculous. The president endorses the national birthday celebration of the country he leads. That is not a political act. It is literally his job! You’d have to be irrational to turn that into a reason to boycott the event itself.
And that’s exactly the point.
The principle isn’t being applied consistently. This isn’t about integrity. This isn’t about nonpartisanship. If it were, these same artists would have been equally reluctant to perform at anything connected to any administration. But they weren’t, because this is not a principled stand — it’s a personal one. And personal feelings dressed up as principles are one of the most corrosive, destructive forces in public life.
The Deeper Problem: What This Says About Us
What troubles me most about this is the reality that when you reach a place where you cannot separate a man from a nation — where your feelings about a president become so consuming that you cannot bring yourself to stand on the National Mall and celebrate 250 years of the most extraordinary democratic experiment in human history — something has gone very wrong inside you. Not politically. Psychologically.
This is what it looks like when contempt becomes an identity. When opposition becomes so central to who you are that you’ll sacrifice anything — even something as beautifully unifying as a national birthday — rather than appear to be on the same stage as someone you despise.
Psychologists call this kind of all-or-nothing thinking cognitive distortion. It’s the same mechanism that makes people blow up relationships, alienate family members, and isolate themselves — all in the name of being right.
These artists are not taking a brave stand. They are, whether they realize it or not, letting one man have so much power over them that he can make them turn their backs on their own country’s milestone. And the irony? They probably think they’re resisting him. They’re actually proving that he lives rent-free in their heads 24 hours a day.
The Narcissism of It
There is something deeply narcissistic about this kind of refusal. Maybe it lives just beneath the surface, but it’s there.
You are a performer. People pay money to see you. Your career was built in large part because you live in a country with the freedom of expression, the free market economy, and the cultural infrastructure to elevate entertainers to extraordinary wealth and fame. And you have decided that your political feelings matter more than 250 years of history?
More than the veterans in the audience. More than the families who would have brought their kids to the Mall to watch fireworks and hear music and feel something proud and collective for one evening. More than your own family members who gave their lives so that our nation — your nation — could remain safe and free. That’s just incredible to me.
If that is your stance, then you made the whole thing — not just the celebration itself, but your entire perspective on reality — about you.
That’s not courage. That’s not principle. That’s self-absorption with a political veneer. And it doesn’t just weaken your character. It destroys it.
What the Bible Says About This — And Why It Matters
For those of us who follow Christ, I think there’s something important here that we shouldn’t gloss over. The Bible does not tell us to honor our leaders only when we agree with them. Romans 13:1 is clear:
Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.
That was written under Nero. Not exactly a crowd-pleaser.
But beyond the specific instruction about authority, Scripture speaks repeatedly to the condition of the heart that this kind of behavior reveals. Proverbs 11:2 says:
When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.
What does it look like to allow your pride — your public brand, your political identity, your fear of what your fan base will think — to override the common good? It looks exactly like this.
Philippians 2:3-4 tells us:
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
The families on that Mall, the soldiers who would have been honored, the children who would have danced — their interests didn’t make the cut.
And then there’s this, from Matthew 5:9:
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
A birthday celebration for a country — music, community, shared joy — is one of the most peaceable things humans do together. Refusing to be part of it because the wrong man might give a speech beforehand is the opposite of peacemaking. It’s division for division’s sake, dressed up as conscience.
Closing Thoughts
I want to be clear about something: this is not about politics. I would write this exact post if the shoe were on the other foot and conservative artists were refusing to perform at a Biden-endorsed national celebration. The principle is the same. The absurdity is the same.
America is not Donald Trump. America is not Joe Biden. America is not any one person, party, or moment in time. America is an idea — imperfect, evolving, sometimes infuriating, but 250 years old and still standing — and it deserves better than to be used as a pawn in someone’s personal brand management.
You want to make a political statement? Write a song. Give an interview. Donate to a cause. Run for office. But don’t skip the birthday party and tell yourself you’re being brave.
You’re just being small.
As always, I share this opinion piece not to win an argument but to think out loud with you — because I believe these things matter. I believe character matters. I believe that how we respond to the world, especially when we’re famous enough that our responses have weight, is a moral question. And I think we owe each other enough honesty to say so.
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