The Boston Globe has a daily feature called Fast Forward written by Teresa Hanafin. I enjoy reading whatever she writes. Here she is in Trump’s parade:

All I wish on this Fourth of July holiday weekend is that Trump doesn’t embarrass us any more than he already has with his co-opting of the DC celebration for partisan political purposes and a grandiose exercise in self-flattery.

Blowing up what has always been a nonpartisan event for ordinary Americans, Trump set up a special VIP viewing section in front of the Lincoln Memorial and distributed tickets to the Republican National Committee, but not the Democratic National Committee. He also gave a bloc of VIP tickets to his campaign organization and to big-money donors, essentially using the celebration as a major fundraiser for his reelection campaign.

As Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post put it, nothing says Fourth of July like preferential treatment for rich toadies.

And then there are the tanks. And the armored vehicles. And the fighter jets. (Tinpot Trump demanded that the service commanders of each branch stand beside him during the flyovers, although CNN is reporting that some commanders, uncomfortable at being used as political props, won’t attend.)

This vainglorious show of US military might, compensation for a deceitful failure to serve, is simply not what we do. Everybody knows we have the biggest hammer in the world. We have never felt the need to brag about it.

Retired four-star Army General Stanley McChrystal suggested that Trump could have honored US values of citizenship and service by recognizing say, Peace Corps volunteers.

“Tanks, planes, they are things,” he said. “They are not the sinew of the nation.”

What is? Democracy. The rule of law. Freedom. Justice. Integrity. Civility. And, in stark contrast to Trump’s display of military muscle, it’s also the Founding Fathers’ grand experiment in civilian self-rule.

And then there’s the price tag. The White House refuses to provide taxpayers with cost estimates. All we know is that the National Park Service, which oversees the National Mall and the monuments, is being forced to transfer $2.5 million to Trump’s kingly Quinceañero, money that’s supposed to be used to maintain and improve national parks across the country. But that’s just a fraction of what the celebration will cost — an event that in previous years cost just $2 million.

Narcissism, divisiveness, reckless spending of public money, no transparency, last-minute chaos … sounds like the entire Trump reign, no?

Me the president instead of We the People. Politics instead of patriotism. Ego instead of egalitarianism. The cult of personality rather than the promise of the collective.

A new poll shows that only 45 percent of US men and women are “extremely proud” to be Americans. (What a shock.) So what to do? Celebrate with your families and friends. Embrace and encourage the good in your communities. And remember the true promise and glory of America.