I winced too. When I saw they were holding a UFC fight on the White House lawn to kick off America’s 250th birthday, something in me reached for the word tacky before I finished the thought. A cage match? For the Declaration of Independence?

Then I caught myself, because I know where that reflex comes from, and it isn’t love of the founding. A poll going around says only about one in six Americans thought the fight was an appropriate way to mark the moment, and the people sharing it think it proves how far we’ve fallen. They have it backward. The gaudy version of this birthday isn’t the cheap one. It’s the real one, and it always has been.