A good friend of mine sent me this zinger from American author and humorist Mark Twain: “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.”

That’s an apt appraisal of today’s state of the nation. Americans in every state were happy to celebrate the country; not so much Mr. Trump. Locally, residents celebrated in grand style at area parades. Bristol’s famed outhouse race draws attention statewide while Warren’s parade serves those who use the freedom of speech as a fun and often raucous form of protest.

Nationally, Trump’s staged a national State Fair that flopped. It was a poor turnout made worse by Fox News and other pro-Trump stations and commentators lying about the turnout to make it appear not as bad as it was. It was typical of the pro-Trump press — petty, pandering, pathetic.

It was also a non-issue. Americans, like the rest of the world, have gotten used to dismissing Trump and much of his team. Nothing he says can be trusted; everything he utters feeds his insatiable narcissism; and much of what he says of consequence might be reversed the next day. And that’s not mentioning his mental health, which is increasingly detached from reality.

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Nevertheless, the nation’s 250th celebration this July 4th provided the occasion for deep thoughts on America’s democratic experiment from many others, including New York Time’s publisher A.G. Sulzberger, political columnist Thomas Friedman and former President Barack Obama.

Sulzberger wrote on press freedom recalling the views of the press from a few of the nation’s founding fathers:

“Washington regarded newspapers as ‘vehicles of knowledge more happily calculated than any other to preserve the liberty, stimulate the industry, and meliorate the morals of an enlightened and free people.’ James Madison believed that the press, by keeping people informed about their government, represented ‘one of the great bulwarks of liberty.’ Thomas Jefferson famously declared he would prefer to have ‘newspapers without a government’ than ‘government without newspapers,’” Sulzberger wrote. “To put those sentiments in more modern terms: A healthy democracy depends on an informed public, which, in turn, depends on the flow of information and accountability provided by independent reporters. This is true not just at the national level, but in each of the communities — each town, each city, each county, each capital — that comprise these United States. Free people need a free press.

“At the heart of the press’ role is original reporting, the work of unearthing and distributing new facts and information… Today, the press that the founders regarded as crucial to American democracy is at its weakest point in the nation’s history,” Sulzberger continued.

“The decline has been especially severe at the local level. Over the last two decades, more than 80% of local journalism jobs have vanished. Nearly 3,500 newspapers have shuttered, with another closing every three days. Digital news organizations have filled only a tiny part of that void… The loss of local reporting, studies suggest, undermines civic health in all sorts of ways: Social cohesion and public trust are replaced by polarization, cynicism, alienation and disengagement with civic life. Voter turnout drops and public corruption increases… They understood the press to be as vital to the success of the American experiment as the three branches of government — a fourth estate.

“That is why the press was made the only profession explicitly protected in the Constitution, through the First Amendment. That bet paid off brilliantly — the free press has played a key supporting role in making this country the envy of the world. To ensure our nation’s next quarter-millennium is as successful, America needs to do more to shore up the press, particularly the local press, in its moment of vulnerability…”

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Columnist Tom Friedman penned his own salute to patriotism in a piece titled “Trump is Fleecing Us,” which was not so much a critique of Trump profiting off the presidency (that’s an undisputable fact) as suggesting Americans were seeing through Trump’s false promises and were hungry for a politics that brings Americans together.

“One thing about President Trump,” Friedman wrote. “He is consistent. He never surprises you on the upside. He has never been remotely interested in being the president of all the people, only his base. He never tries to win by addition, only by division — only by us versus them.”

But Friedman’s bigger point is that Americans are tired of Trump’s greed, lies and extreme partisanship. “I believe the quest for national unity is the most underestimated political force in the country today,” he writes, then quotes this passage from Obama’s recent speech at the opening ceremony of his presidential center in Chicago:

“As algorithms keep feeding us a steady stream of distraction and outrage, as only the loudest, most extreme voices get attention, fanning our prejudices, appealing to our basest, most tribal instincts, it’s tempting to give in to cynicism and even despair, to stop trying,” the former president said.

“We start thinking that appeals to democracy and civic participation are corny and old-fashioned and boring and naïve, that the very idea of working on behalf of the common good is a sucker’s bet, and that in order for us to win, somebody else has got to lose.

“I get it. I am not immune to anger or doubt, but I do know this: When we lose faith in each other, when we stop believing that voting matters, that citizenship matters, that our collective voices matter, that how we treat each other no longer matters, and we give away our power to decide our own futures, we open the door to the most ruthless, or the most careless, or the most fearful among us, who see some groups and some people as more equal than others, and see government as nothing more than a way to divvy up the spoils and punish enemies and keep those who are different in their place.”

But, Obama continued, “I do not believe that is the story of America that prevails in the end…I remain convinced that the overwhelming majority of Americans… aren’t looking for perpetual anger and division. They are looking for fairness and common sense and mutual respect, that deep in our gut we want to find a way to turn toward each other again, not further away.”

That’s the kind of patriotism that puts country above partisanship, that unites rather than divides.

Angelo Lynn