The authoritarian nationalist leader typically rewrites the story of the nation in his own image, in a very particular way. Our own homegrown authoritarian nationalist has proved particularly devoted to this fusion of national mythmaking and self-hagiography, often delivered in his own unique language of crass, gaudy spectacle.

The Fourth of July was a partisan holiday from the time it was first celebrated in the 1790s. It became popular as a self-conscious endorsement of Thomas Jefferson, his Declaration of Independence and the first Republican Party — over George Washington, Washington’s Birthday and the Federalist Party.

On this Fourth of July, we may be asking whether the president’s celebration, in which flyovers and tanks tell us that military service is the epitome of public service, is the right one. Or we may be asking, with Nike and Colin Kaepernick, whether we can see more in Betsy Ross’s flag than a proslavery emblem. But on any Fourth of July, the real question is what version of the republic we care to advance by celebrating.

Since 1975, the number of people who think abortion should be illegal under all circumstances has surged from 22 percent to . . . 21 percent. Give it up, folks. Nothing is changing, and there’s no special reason to think it ever will. Whatever happens, the chart above describes the basic state of public opinion that we all have to deal with. So deal with it.

In 1992, the Supreme Court ruled in Planned Parenthood v. Casey and failed to overturn Roe v. Wade… Polls showed that the pro-life position was losing ground in the court of public opinion, and many on the right called for the Republican party to abandon its platform plank opposing abortion… Much has changed in the past 25 years. Now, the GOP is almost uniformly pro-life at the federal level, and there is no discussion of removing the pro-life plank from the party platform.

…when asked, “Would you like to see the Supreme Court overturn its 1973 Roe versus Wade decision concerning abortion, or not?” only 33% of respondents replied yes. In other words, about half of the 60% of anti-abortion respondents are at odds with themselves. You can’t oppose abortion in almost all circumstances and yet support Roe, which makes even modest restrictions on abortion impossible to pass. This reveals that people generally support Roe because they don’t know any better. If people did understand Roe, their answers might be more consistent.

The nation’s politics are not only driven by a vengeful, paranoid demagogue who has exacerbated white fears of demographic change and strives to reënshrine archaic bigotries. Now, five Supreme Court Justices, presumably more staid, more conscientious, and more rational than the President, have aided him in that cause.

…if the Left really believed its scorching rhetoric about the conservative justices, the last thing it should want would be for those justices to be distinguishing between permissible and impermissible partisan gerrymanders. Given the complexity of assessing gerrymandering, it would not be a difficult thing for a genuine Republican partisan to conclude that the North Carolina plan (favoring Republicans) is just fine but that the Maryland plan (favoring Democrats) is forbidden.

And what about progressives who oppose gerrymandering—how should they proceed through the Mad Max landscape the court has foisted upon them? Unilateral blue state disarmament isn’t a good option. A better one is to codify the crafting of congressional districts with the aim of national partisan fairness. That way, blue states could either offset red state gerrymanders elsewhere or, if the national playing field is level, adopt fair maps themselves.

Palestinians and Israelis live in the same land, share the same utility grids, roads, economy, and currency. A confederation government representing both peoples, working in conjunction with the Israeli and Palestinian governments, could be a gamechanger. Throughout the world, federations have worked to allow groups with different interests to thrive under a common government.

Whatever political framework ends up rising from the ashes of the two-state model, it cannot be the same idea with a minor facelift… It is imperative that we shift from a peace-making system obsessed with resuming a distorted negotiation process, to a rights-based approach…

Many Palestinians favor one state because they hope to become Israeli citizens and gain equal rights and more opportunities, including the opportunity to shape the country’s political direction. Israelis oppose this version because they want to preserve Israel as the homeland for the Jewish people, which they feel would be threatened by an influx of Palestinian citizens.

Trump didn’t fix the economy that Obama didn’t break. For starters, the Great Recession and financial crisis began under Bush II not Obama, a fact that some Republicans seem to forget. (Even stranger, there are those on the right who actually blame Obama for the downturn that began before he took office. Mr. Market saw his socialism coming!)

There are no guarantees this growth will continue, and bad trade and monetary policy could derail it. But the Democrats now running for President want to return to the Obama policy mix of high taxes, willy-nilly regulation and income redistribution, and more of it. To win the economic argument they have to deny the reality that Donald Trump’s policies are helping the Americans that Democratic policies left behind.

In some key ways, the Donald Trump economy, on fire last year but slowing this year, is starting to resemble the one he inherited from his predecessor. There are the rock-bottom bond yields, plodding economic growth and, not to be understated, the Federal Reserve seemingly pulling all the strings, a role that was only exacerbated in the days since the financial crisis and Great Recession and continues to the present day.

There is little doubt that Chabad Hasidism constitutes one of the most, if not the most, potent Jewish messianic movements in the 20th century. Messianic movements are complex, organic, bipolar creatures. Their power is generated by a mix of charismatic leadership and historical conditions that merge to create a volatile bubbling mix of religious enthusiasm, utopian optimism and, when they fail, foreboding and crushing disappointment. Such disappointment makes them prone to revisionism.

Some Hasidim continue to believe that the Rebbe didn’t really die, or that he is about to be resurrected – surely an ironic turn in the history of Judaism. But that is a minority response. The real legacy of the Rebbe’s messianic campaign is the increased devotion and self-sacrifice of his followers, the intensification of their love for their fellow Jews, the spreading of kindness and good deeds.

The Rebbe was much more than a rabbi. He understood education. He understood motivation. He understood strategic focus, and targeted audience, and clear objectives. He had the skill with which to build an organization that survives him. I suspect he also understood that the times are changing. That having another larger-than-life rebbe in the era of Twitter and Trump, an era of pettiness and smallness, could be an insurmountable challenge. So, he made sure Chabad is prepared for such an era. The movement’s success — without him, beyond him — is the starkest proof of the Rebbe’s foresight.