After 250 years, America is still asking its oldest question: “Who are we?”
In “All We Say,” Ben Rhodes uses 15 speeches to trace the clash of ideas that shape how Americans define the nation and themselves.
America is not in the mood for a party.
Even as the United States celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, celebrating the founding of the world’s oldest modern constitutional democracy, most Americans remain dissatisfied with the country’s current state and pessimistic about its future.
With recent polls showing double-digit numbers, they predict that the country’s best years are behind them and that the future holds more danger than promise.
Despite some signs of good sentiment, today’s sharp political divisions have redefined, at least temporarily, a milestone often marked by unity and optimism. Barry Bliss’s cover of The New Yorker featured a dyspeptic George Washington covered in confetti and holding a martini. The caption is “red, white, and a little blue.”
Six recent national surveys conducted by Pew Research Center and Gallup, NBC News and Fox News, and Elon University and Emerson College raise a variety of questions, but they consistently show an anxious public anxiously watching what happens next.
It’s nothing new. Until now, major anniversaries of the Declaration have been marked not only by celebrations but also by protests and unrest.
In 1876, his 100th birthday, the United States was still recovering from the devastating Civil War. At a public celebration at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, suffragist Susan B. Anthony marched uninvited to the podium and urged assembled dignitaries to demand women’s rights.
In 1976, the nation’s Bicentennial was celebrated in the wake of the trauma of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal that forced President Richard Nixon to resign. The celebration was led by his successor, Gerald Ford, the only president never elected to national office as president or vice president.
“Many generations of Americans have always viewed this founding as an opportunity to campaign for more rights,” said Syracuse University historian Carol Faulkner, who has studied the commemoration. “Now may be a time to think about freedom, equality, and the pursuit of happiness.”
But this time, she says, is different in some ways. “It’s much more partisan. It’s actually more about a divisive president than it is about the commemorations of 1876 or 1976.”
I feel even more depressed today.
At the time of the nation’s bicentennial in 1976, 43% of those surveyed by Roper felt optimistic about the country’s future, compared to 15% who were pessimistic, outnumbering those who were negative by 28 points. 39% were unsure.
Now, in an Emerson College poll asking the same question, pessimism rose 26 points to 41%, while optimism fell to 42%, an overall gain of 1 point. 18% were unsure.
What do the founders think?
An Elon University poll found that seven in 10 Americans (69%) said they believed the signers of the Declaration of Independence would feel more disappointed than proud about modern American democracy.
July 4th “Trump Rally”
The semi-quincentenary comes after two tumultuous decades that upended the nation’s politics and left many Americans feeling devastated.
The financial system collapsed in 2008, and the global coronavirus pandemic broke out in 2020. The divisive Iraq war ended in 2011, and ten years later the long war in Afghanistan ended with a chaotic withdrawal. Since his first election in 2016, President Donald Trump has reshaped a more populist Republican Party with a harder line. And democratic socialists like New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani and New York State Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have become a more important force within the Democratic Party.
Democratic critics are now accusing Trump of choosing to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary over the country, from the June 14 UFC cage match on the South Lawn of the White House to the Great American State Fair on the National Mall.
President Trump boasted on Truth Social that the July 4th event in Washington, D.C., which includes a huge fireworks display, will be “the most spectacular Trump rally of all.”
Congress created a bipartisan commission called America 250 to coordinate Memorial Day events, but President Trump has created a separate group called Freedom 250 to lead the biggest events.
Concerns about his taking over the traditionally apolitical celebration have led some states to decline to participate in the Washington event and some entertainers to cancel plans to perform at the event.
Additionally, some community-based programs have partisan overtones. The Gallup poll, conducted in partnership with America 250 and the organization With Honor, found nearly nine in 10 Republicans (88%) say they plan to celebrate the anniversary in some way, compared to 54% of Democrats.
There are also divisions based on age.
Among seniors aged 65 and older, 84% planned to celebrate. Among young people aged 18 to 39, 54% did so.
By most measures, young people are more pessimistic than older people about the future of the country and the resilience of the American Dream, an aspiration that has driven Americans for generations.
Young people in the Pew survey were more likely to predict that by 2050, the country would be more politically divided, economically less prosperous, and a more dangerous place to live.
Three in 10 voters under 30 said in a Fox News poll that they would rather live in another country.
looking for a light of hope
Some analysts fear that the friction over the 250th anniversary, especially the national commemoration, will end up exacerbating bitter domestic rifts rather than alleviating them.
Still, nearly everyone in the Gallup poll said what they were most proud of about being American, with “the freedoms we have” (35%) and “the diversity of our people” (28%) leading the way. Only 4% said they were not proud of anything.
Nearly nine in 10 people cited things that make them optimistic about the future, and 26% cited “people willing to stand up for what they believe is right.” However, 12% couldn’t think of anything that would make them optimistic.
Emotions are mixed and sometimes even conflict.
When thinking about the future, 68% told Pew they were hopeful, and 60% said they were scared. 54% felt happy and 50% felt sad.
An overwhelming 85% said it was important for Fox to emphasize national unity and shared values.
On the other hand, they also expressed little confidence that common values still prevail. 58% to 42% of those surveyed said Americans are primarily separated by different values and not bound by common values.
Congratulations on America’s 250th anniversary.
Susan Page, USA TODAY’s Washington bureau chief, has covered 12 presidential elections and seven presidents. Her most recent book is The Queen and Her Presidents (Harper, 2026).
