Proud of the promise? Responsible for the work?
By Steve Flagg
Guest Column
On July 4, 2026, America will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of the American nation. A birthday worth celebrating, not only by Americans, but also by all who believe in the principles this nation announced to the world.
John Adams thought the great day would be July 2; the day Congress voted for independence. He wrote it should be remembered “with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations” from one end of the continent to the other. Adams got the date wrong, but the spirit was right. A good cookout, backyard grill, fireworks, family and neighbors seem like a fine way to start.
The 250th birthday should be more than a party. It should create a conversation. What are we proud of? What troubles us? What does it mean to be patriotic at a time when many Americans are proud of their country but ashamed of the government acting in its name?
Even the birth date is more complicated than our July 4 tradition suggests. The Declaration was adopted in 1776. The Constitution was signed in 1787, ratified in 1788, and the new government began under George Washington in 1789. The Bill of Rights followed in 1791. America was not born in a single moment. It was declared, debated, compromised into existence, launched and then improved.
That matters because America will never be finished. The Declaration announced that “all men are created equal,” that governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed,” and that human beings possess rights to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The Constitution began with “We the People” and set as one of its purposes the formation of “a more perfect Union.”
A more perfect union. Those words admit something essential. The founders did not claim perfection. They gave us an aspiration, a place we wanted to reach and a structure through which future generations could work toward it.
That work has always required compromise. The Constitution was born through argument, negotiation and compromise among states with different interests, economies, fears and ambitions. Without compromise, there likely would have been no Constitution and no durable union.
But not every compromise was honorable. The compromises over slavery, including the Three-Fifths Compromise, made the Constitution possible while leaving the nation’s deepest moral contradiction unresolved. The country declared equality while tolerating human bondage. That original sin scarred our history, empowered slavery politically, and eventually demanded a terrible reckoning in civil war.
The greatness of America is not that it was always right. It is that it created principles by which its failures could be judged. Abraham Lincoln returned the nation to the Declaration at Gettysburg, calling America a nation “conceived in Liberty” and dedicated to equality. He spoke of “the unfinished work” and called for “a new birth of freedom.” Martin Luther King Jr. later described the Declaration and Constitution as a “promissory note” to which every American was heir.
That is the American story at its best: not perfection, but correction; not denial, but renewal.
This is why polling about national pride must be read carefully. When Americans are asked whether they are proud of their country, the answer often depends on what “America” means. Are we talking about the American people, our founding ideals, our long record of achievement, our present government or the policies of the current administration?
A recent Quinnipiac poll captured that distinction: nearly three-fourths of Americans considered themselves proud Americans, even while a majority said the country is not living up to the Declaration’s promise.
Those are not the same questions.
Recent polling shows many Americans remain proud of the country’s ideals and achievements while deeply dissatisfied with how our government and democracy are functioning today. That is not a contradiction. A citizen can be proud of America and ashamed of what leaders do in America’s name. A citizen can honor the flag and still criticize the president, Congress, the courts or public policy. In fact, most Americans understand that patriotism does not require unconditional approval. It can mean acknowledging problems and seeking solutions.
That point matters because the broad question of national pride is too often used as a political weapon. If Democrats, Republicans, independents or any citizens say they are less proud during a particular administration, some immediately accuse them of being unpatriotic. But pride in America is not the same as pride in the government of the moment. No president owns America. No party owns patriotism.
Patriotism is loyalty to the republic, not loyalty to the ruler.
The founders understood this. They built a system based on elections, checks and balances, separation of powers, free speech, free press and the right to protest. Those safeguards exist because power needs limits. Criticism of government is not an insult to America. It is one of the ways Americans keep the republic.
Benjamin Franklin is said to have answered, when asked what kind of government the convention had created, “A republic, if you can keep it.” George Washington called the new nation an experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people. Both warnings still speak to us.
So let us celebrate America’s 250th birthday. Let us have the cookouts, parades, bells, fireworks and illuminations Adams imagined. Let us remember the courage of those who declared independence and the wisdom of those who built a constitutional republic.
But let us also remember that America is an aspiration, not a possession. It is a promise we inherit and a responsibility we either fulfill or neglect. We should be proud of the promise, honest about the failures, and committed to the work.
Compromise helped bring this nation together. Principled compromise will be required to keep it together. But the lesson of slavery is that compromise must never become an excuse to postpone justice forever. At 250, the task before us is not to pretend America has achieved perfection. It is to renew our common purpose, recover civic humility and summon the courage to keep moving toward the more perfect union we have always promised, but never fully achieved.