The solution to America’s 250th birthday mess? Party like it’s 1976.

Don’t let Trump ruin America’s anniversary.

America’s 250th anniversary has arrived, and, at a national level, the narrative is set: Presdient Donald Trump has made the semi-quincentennial into his personal party.

The White House has rolled out a series of headline-grabbing events, from a UFC fight on the South Lawn to a failed concert series eventually replaced with — what else? — a full-fledged Trump rally. His transportation secretary called artists who decided not to perform “libtards.”

The Great American State Fair is kind of a flop, too. And while Washington, DC, might see a record-setting fireworks display, no one knows exactly when, because it’s going to have to wait for Trump to finish his big speech on the Mall (at potentially 11 pm, or even later).

Will Trump ruin America’s birthday?

But Trump’s vision of America doesn’t have to be how the whole country celebrates. After all, this has (kind of) happened before; America’s 1976 bicentennial under President Richard Nixon wasn’t smooth sailing either.

Ultimately, according to MJ Rymsza-Pawlowska, a historian at American University and the author of History Comes Alive: Public History and Popular Culture in the 1970s, many of the bicentennial festivities ended up taking place at the local level, buoyed by grassroots support and a desire for a celebration that looked more like America.

Rymsza-Pawlowska spoke with Today, Explained co-host Noel King in early June about how the bicentennial celebrations ended up the way they did, what Nixon’s original vision called for instead, and why even the most iconic national celebrations are often shaped less by official plans than by the people who take part in them.

Below is an excerpt of their conversation about America’s upcoming birthday, edited for length and clarity. There’s much more in the full podcast, so listen to Today, Explained wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify.

Let’s dip back into the mists of time. It is 1976. America is a different country than it is today. What is the mood leading up to the bicentennial celebration of USA?

It is not dissimilar as the mood now, and it’s actually also not dissimilar as the mood in 1876. We never have an uncomplicated national commemoration, it turns out.

In 1976, President Richard Nixon had just resigned under a cloud of scandal. He was a president who many people really, really disliked, who was accused of having an........

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