On Flag Day, consider America’s ongoing experiment

A week ago, I found myself sitting in the lobby of a Times Square hotel, watching the currents of a Tuesday night intersect. As I sit down to write this for Flag Day on Sunday, that scene — the pride, the basketball fans, the market hum — still feels like the most honest map of the country we are actually living in.

The lobby was a cross-section of the current American temperament. To my left, a launch party for the Pride Committee was in full swing, Whitney Houston and Cher blasting over the sound system. A few yards away, a phalanx of San Antonio Spurs fans — Victor Wembanyama jerseys everyw...