This Fourth of July, America turns 250 years old. How you feel about this fact could indicate your politics. The 250th anniversary celebrates the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. But a new Reuters/Ipsos poll of 1,500 U.S. adults found that opinions about honoring the nation’s milestone birthday were sharply split across party lines.For Republican respondents, the reason to celebrate the semiquincentennial goes back to the nation’s founding. They were most likely to state that “It is important for Americans to observe the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence” and agree that “viewing an America 250 event is patriotic.” Meanwhile, Democrats were most likely to express ambivalence and believe that “The America 250 events have become too political.”Under President Donald Trump, programming for the nation’s 250th anniversary has become aligned with his administration. After Trump’s reelection, he formed Freedom 250, a rival organization to America 250, a bipartisan group founded by Congress.Both groups are meant to celebrate 250 years of American independence, but Freedom 250 has been mired in partisan controversies. They include a Great American State Fair that performers have dropped out of, citing its “misleading” partisan nature, and history exhibits accused of sanitizing or removing stories related to America’s founding. After the blowback to his Great American State Fair, Trump said he would throw a “spectacular” rally on the anniversary. So it’s no wonder then that, for some, this birthday feels politically charged.Ryan, an Ohio-based Democrat who asked HuffPost not to share his full name, plans to sit out America 250 events. He has a U.S. flag in front of his house but does not plan to put up an “America 250” flag like he sees neighbors doing. For Ryan, that’s too MAGA-coded. “I feel like anything associated with that is an endorsement of the administration,” Ryan said. “I just don’t feel very proud right now as an American, and I don’t think that’s unpatriotic to say. ... It’s OK if you feel differently. That is what makes America great.”Mark Cunningham via Getty ImagesIs proudly celebrating America's 250th birthday MAGA-coded? Republicans are more likely to celebrate this milestone by donning red, white and blue and attending an America 250 event, according to new poll.How Americans are planning to dress up for this Fourth of July is also politically divisive, according to the new poll. An estimated 52% of Republicans surveyed said their celebrations would include wearing the colors of the U.S. national flag, while only 20% of Democrats said they would do the same. For some Democrats, proudly waving about an American flag right now is too MAGA-coded. “I do a side-eye every time I see something that is overly flagged up, like people with a big flag on their shirt, because I feel like it has been co-opted into a conservative thing,” Ryan said. Of course, not every liberal feels like this. Political commentator Suzanne Lambert, known as “the Regina George liberal,” said she “will be wearing flag memorabilia, I will be hitting the Old Navy Fourth of July flag T-shirt sale.” For Lambert, “America 250 and celebrating the Fourth of July is antithetical to the MAGA movement” because it recognizes that “we came over here because we didn’t want to be ruled by kings” and “we have a president leading the MAGA movement who wants to be a king.” Bloomberg via Getty ImagesSpectators watch the Freedom 250 National Memorial Day Parade in May. The Freedom 250 events have been accused of being too partisan.There’s A Different Path To Celebrating This Fourth Of July Without Supporting MAGA, Historian Says Princeton University historian Eddie S. Glaude Jr., the author of “America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries,” said how you choose to celebrate the Fourth of July will be MAGA-coded, depending upon where you are in the country, because some celebrations will support Trump, MAGA and the idea that “America’s perfection was secured in its founding.”“In my book, I argue that America suffers a divided soul, and it has since its founding,” Glaude said. “It imagines itself at once as a beacon of freedom and as a white republic, and you can’t hold those two claims together without contradiction.”But at the same time, Glaude said, Americans shouldn’t cede the Fourth of July to MAGA supporters. “The response to that tension is not to give over the celebration to them,” Glaude said. “They’re wrapping themselves in the flag, they’re wrapping themselves in patriotism. Well, we need to wrap ourselves in the people.” He cited the People’s Bicentennial Commission movement as one historic example of counter-programming to the nationalist agenda of a bicentennial. “In 1976, they were responding to the corporate takeover of the country into the Nixon era,” Glaude said. “They wanted the bicentennial to be rooted in working people, they wanted to claim the country for themselves; 30,000 people showed up in Boston.”Glaude said the PBC’s community-based approach is a “different tradition that we can invoke, and then try to do it.”“They're wrapping themselves in the flag, they're wrapping themselves in patriotism. Well, we need to wrap ourselves in the people.- Princeton University historian Eddie S. Glaude Jr.Instead of waving an America 250 flag, Ryan said, he plans to go to Northside, an alternative, whimsical Fourth of July parade in a Cincinnati neighborhood that is known for having marchers who support celebrating LGBTQ+ rights and ending Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Ryan likes that it’s “more community-based. It’s not saying America is the greatest.” Looking toward the future instead of spending so much time in the past is an approach to the Fourth of July that Glaude suggests. “What MAGA has is nostalgia for a world that’s long gone,” Glaude said. “What we need to do is embrace who we are in light of a future we want.”To that end, Glaude suggested that celebrating this Fourth of July could range from going to a joyful cookout or going to a protest. He said he hopes LGBTQ+, Black and brown people celebrate their culture and show up in large numbers however they choose to celebrate, because “the power of America does not reside in the idolatry around the flag or patriotism. The power of the country rests with the people.”