When you wake up tomorrow morning, you'll be able to click on the Federal Register and learn that last Friday, and presumably every Jan. 20 hereafter, was and will be a National Day of Patriotic Devotion.
President Donald Trump declared it so.
It is a troubling development on many levels. I'll just point out one: It connects patriotism – no, patriotic devotion – to a single individual's assumption to power. Rather like that "total allegiance" line in Trump's inaugural address. Moreover, it is not about whether you believe, but how hard you believe. In a particular person, given the timing.
Over at The Resurgent.com, Erick Erickson has likewise weighed in on the topic:
We already have a day for patriotic devotion. It is called Independence Day and it has everything to do with the founding of our nation and nothing to do with Donald Trump or any other President. Heck, for that matter, we have Washington's Birthday, which we now generically treat as President's Day.
Below is the text, which, as we said, should be available and officially published in the morning:
By the President of the United States of America
A new national pride stirs the American soul and inspires the American heart. We are one people, united by a common destiny and a shared purpose.
Freedom is the birthright of all Americans, and to preserve that freedom we must maintain faith in our sacred values and heritage.
Our Constitution is written on parchment, but it lives in the hearts of the American people. There is no freedom where the people do not believe in it; no law where the people do not follow it; and no peace where the people do not pray for it.
There are no greater people than the American citizenry, and as long as we believe in ourselves, and our country, there is nothing we cannot accomplish.
Now, therefore, I, Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 20, 2017, as National Day of Patriotic Devotion, in order to strengthen our bonds to each other and to our country -- and to renew the duties of Government to the people.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand seventeen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-first.
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