“There’s a kind of exhaustion and resentment — maybe sometimes feeling a little foolish about still feeling attached to some idea of this country.” — Christopher Hooks

Happy fucking birthday, America. No, not my tasteless language. These words adorn the cover of the July 2026 issue of the 175-year-old Harper’s, America’s oldest monthly publication. From one alter kocker to another. It’s no fun getting old.

The Harper’s piece, written by the Texas-based journalist Christopher Hooks, is a funereal essay about his travels around an exhausted America. It began as a reported account of America250 — the bipartisan commission set up in 2015–2016, at the end of the Obama era, to organise the semiquincentennial celebrations. Bipartisan? Internal bureaucratic dysfunction. Disagreements about purpose. Trumpian lawsuits. NDAs. Blah, blah, blah. Hooks found it demoralising. The landscape of Washington DC, he writes mournfully, is didactic and insistent. Some alter kocker is always trying to teach you something.

But some people do, indeed, have something to teach us. Hooks’ piece ends with Thaddeus Stevens — the club-footed, cranky, ugly radical Republican congressman who was born a few years after the Constitution was ratified. Stevens spent most of his long life believing in perfect racial and ethnic equality, helped frame the 14th Amendment as a second founding father, and died deeply disappointed. And, of course, that disappointment would only be compounded if he could see what Christopher Hooks saw in his recent trip around the contemporary United States.

Dear America — happy fucking birthday. Love, uncle Thaddeus.

Five Takeaways

• Happy Fucking Birthday. Hooks’ editor at Harper’s came up with the title. Hooks is glad they did. His father — a Republican until 2016 — wakes up every morning dealing with the fact that America is not what he thought it was. He feels humiliated. His son does too. Nobody likes to be fooled.

• The America250 Commission. Set up at the end of the Obama era. Internal dysfunction. Lawsuits. NDAs. Trump’s people brought in. Proudest achievement: a venture capital fund to repair patriotism in younger Americans. Hooks left the press briefing dispirited.

• 1876 Had Juice, 1976 Had Amnesia. 1926 was a disaster. 1976 produced unexpected patriotic sentiment that made possible both Carter and Reagan — but the moment of maximum danger had passed. The one commemoration with genuine energy was 1876: the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The 250th is not that.

• Thaddeus Stevens. Club-footed, cranky, ugly. Believed in perfect racial equality when almost no one else did. Helped frame the 14th Amendment. Died deeply disappointed. The most honest version of America’s story: anger about the country as it is, work for something better, don’t live to see it, lay the groundwork for what comes after.

• Not Going to a Sanctioned Celebration Zone. Hooks will be in New York with friends. Not setting off fireworks. His father in Texas, doing the same. Both feel humiliated. The Gilded Age was bleak too, and it gave way to the progressive era. He wants to have hope. Some days it’s easier than others.

About the Guest

Christopher Hooks writes about Texas politics for Texas Monthly and national politics for Harper’s and others. He divides his time between Austin and Brooklyn. His piece “Happy Fucking Birthday” is the cover story of Harper’s July 2026.

References

“Happy Fucking Birthday” by Christopher Hooks, Harper’s Magazine, July 2026: harpers.org/archive/2026/07/happy-fucking-birthday-christopher-hooks-semiquincentennial
Ben Fountain, Rasputin Swims the Potomac
Thaddeus Stevens (1792–1868) — radical Republican, framer of the 14th Amendment

About Keen On America

Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen.

Website: https://keenon.tv/ Substack: https://keenon.substack.com/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@KeenOnShow

Chapters:

00:00:31 Harper’s and happy fucking birthday
00:02:35 How difficult is it to write realistically about America?
00:04:57 The unique indignity of the Trump era
00:05:28 His father: Republican until 2016, now humiliated
00:07:06 The America250 commission
00:10:36 Is anyone not exhausted?
00:12:00 1876, 1926, 1976: the history of milestone commemorations
00:27:25 Thaddeus Stevens
00:30:27 The Gilded Age swings back
00:31:36 Where will he be on the Fourth?