America at 250

We reckon with our shortcomings, take pride in our advances, and pledge ourselves to make our Union more perfect.

Americans celebrate our 250th anniversary this weekend. The bad news is that Americans are less excited about celebrating America than at any other time in the modern era, according to Gallup. The good news is that the decline of patriotism reflects discord over the politics of 2026, not the ideals of 1776.

The Nationhood Lab, led by American Nations author Colin Woodard, has been polling & testing a rebooted civic national narrative for the United States. This narrative aligns a supermajority of Americans behind a story of purpose, identity and belonging. Below is that core narrative, modestly edited by me:

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We’re a nation defined not by shared bloodlines but by a commitment to a set of ideals, the self-evident truths about equality and freedom set forth in our opening statement as a people, the Declaration of Independence.

Every one of us has a set of intrinsic rights:

• to survive;

• to not be tyrannized;

• to live the life we choose for ourselves;

• and to take part in determining who represents us and in holding them accountable.

We are, as Americans, in a covenant to defend one another’s natural rights.

That’s the American Promise, our mutual pledge to uphold these inalienable rights.

And the American Experiment is a project to protect one another’s rights by governing ourselves.

We are a people united by our commitment to uphold and defend this Experiment, lest it perish from the Earth.

These are the ideals Frederick Douglass championed in every speech he gave. This is the Founding Fathers in Philadelphia, Lincoln at Gettysburg, and Martin Luther King Jr. on the National Mall. They’re ideals we’ve spent 250 years struggling to achieve, ideals contested from the outset by those who would make our country something far less: just another nation-state built on blood – tribal kinship, inherited rule and caste systems – where rights are things granted by superiors, if they are granted at all.

Americans fought for these ideals at Valley Forge, Shiloh and Normandy; we advanced them at Seneca Falls, Selma and Stonewall. They’re ideals each generation must defend and that we fight for today. We reckon with our shortcomings, take pride in our advances, and pledge ourselves to make our Union more perfect.