On July 4th, 2026, the United States of America celebrated its 250th anniversary. It has been an interesting experience this year to see how this celebration of our history has not had a positive effect on America’s national mood. After 250 years, it seems as if many people are asking, “Is the American dream over?”
What this pessimism seems to forget is that the United States has a history full of both good times and bad, unity and division and success and failure in living up to our ideals. It can feel as if the only way to improve the nation is to attack its past and look at its flaws. This is wrong. There is plenty in American history and in America today to be proud of. As we look forward to the next 250 years, we should keep all this in mind. America is the greatest nation in the world and it has a bright future ahead.
The ideals of our founding
In 1776, the United States began an experiment in a fundamentally different style of government. Europe was comprised predominantly of monarchies, and mostly absolutist monarchies at that. Take, for instance, the French ancien regime, a system in which your rigid social status determined your rights.
By contrast, the United States Constitution, at least in theory, guaranteed rights to all. Unfortunately, African Americans and women were not allowed these rights for decades. However, part of the story of American history is an ever-expanding circle of rights. Decade after decade, the number of people who were allowed to fully enjoy their constitutional rights increased. It is worth noting that the rights described in the Declaration of Independence flow from the Creator and are thus inherent to all people.
U.S. history is stained with the mark of slavery. To define American history by its worst moment forgets how that story ended, however. A bloody civil war was fought to end the practice and preserve the Union. Though it took another century to end segregation, it was ultimately ended by determined Americans seeking to improve our country. American history as a whole has trended toward improvement over the past 250 years.
The American experiment
The experiment in self-government that began in 1776 should be a point of pride for all Americans, regardless of its flaws. In America, regardless of race, religion, wealth or station, we all share the same human dignity and rights. This was an exceptionally new idea in human history and only in the past 250 years has it become increasingly common. Our greatness as a nation does not come from our military preeminence, our economic clout or our media dominance. Rather, it comes from the system of government we have been gifted with.
It is a system in which the people are sovereign and which is designed to prevent tyranny. It should be a point of pride for Americans that our constitutional order has survived unto today. By remembering the ideals of the American Revolution, America can find the pride in itself that it seems to lack.
The American experiment is not perfect. That is part of what makes America great. America is a great nation because of both what we got right and what we sought to correct. Our capacity for self-reflection and self-correction is a powerful thing.
Some of our proudest moments were built on that self-reflection. The Founders understood that America needed to be able to correct its mistakes. In fact, a whole article of the Constitution is devoted to that process. To strive closer to the ideals laid out for us is the ultimate aim of the American system.
America’s present
Today, America is still a great country. Even though Americans are deeply divided, millions of Americans are still engaged and participating in shaping their future. The past two presidential elections have seen the highest turnout in a century. We do not see the political apathy that our national mood of pessimism may invite. Rather, we see more people wanting to engage and make the system better on both sides of the political aisle.
The U.S. is a dominant player in science and technology, leading the way in mRNA vaccines, AI, mathematics, astronomy and other fields. The U.S. is the world’s richest nation. Our military is the most dominant that the world has ever seen. Ultimately, however, it is not these things that make America great today.
Rather, America is great because of the ideals that this country is built upon. Our history is one of liberty. We are the greatest nation in the world because we overcame our own flaws to hew closer to that ideal.
A more perfect union
No nation is perfect. Americans should not look back at their history, see the good and assume that nothing is wrong or that nothing needs to change.
Self-improvement is by no means incompatible with a positive view of the U.S. In the preamble to the Constitution, Gouverneur Morris, the preamble’s author, wrote: “in order to form a more perfect union.” That choice of wording seems very deliberate. The union the founders created was not perfect, but it was moving in the right direction. It was freer and fairer. The Founders understood that they may have gotten things wrong. That is why the Constitution includes a process for amending itself. As we look forward to the next 250 years of this nation, we should not be ashamed to look back with pride at what we have done in the past. America has been and still is a great nation.
