"I don’t think we get anything out of it," said Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser about the "Salute to America" July 4th celebration.

She's "an American who loves celebrating the Fourth of July as a nonpolitical event," and has "some concerns about a president not celebrating the military but glorifying military might. That scares me the most." (Politico.)

I guess we "celebrate the military" without "glorifying military might" on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, where the stress is on the courage and sacrifices of individual human beings. The 4th of July does offer an occasion to express enthusiasm, excitement, and optimism about fighting wars. The fireworks are the "bombs bursting in air" of the National Anthem. Now, the 4th marks the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, so the ideas of freedom and self-government are the most accurate focus. But the Declaration started a war, and that worked out well, and we're glad we did it — or so we say on the 4th. So what's so bad about "glorifying military might"?

Trump opponents are doing pretty well not falling into the trap of disparaging the military. Bowser gets a little close to the trap, saying she finds the glorification of the military scary (presumably because it might lead us into using the military more than we should). But she's pretty circumspect. She sounds a little wary of all the nonresidents pouring into her city, but she's careful to say, "Our stance is to support the activities of the federal government for July Fourth as we have always done." The city of Washington can't get away with saying it would prefer to exclude the rest of Americans, as if we are outsiders to our capital.