America 250: We will bend the arc of history again
Friday Flashpoint: July 3, AD 2026
What an extraordinary people the Americans are! Their hospitality is a revelation to me and they make you feel at home and at ease in a way that I have never before experienced. — 21 year-old Winston Churchill
Americans get things done.
From around the globe, World Cup fans have visited cities across America from Atlanta to Boston to Dallas to Seattle and Philadelphia, and more. Many have expressed shock at their reception, air conditioning, and the beauty of our metropolises. There is a continent sized country outside of the politics in Washington, D.C., and our foreign guests have come away with a newfound appreciation for the American people.
The classicist Victor Davis Hanson once said that America’s advantage was that it was always better than the alternative. I have adopted it as a truism in my work because history has proven him correct. Millions of immigrants left countries, often where they were demographic majorities, to be newcomers in the USA because it offered them more than their native lands. However, as Americans prepare to celebrate the 250th year since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, do Americans still feel that their country is better than the alternatives or do they feel stuck? We celebrated the 200th after Vietnam and Watergate when many Americans felt low and questioned what was worth celebrating; and we got through it. We will get through this era too.
The arc of history does not bend toward morality and justice on its own, Americans from 1776 to now have grabbed history and bent it to their will.
Maybe, the true test of any political union is not found in the grandiosity of its founding myths but in the material reality of how its citizens view their system, their lives, and their prospects. We live in the present and not the past no matter how much we may celebrate it. As the United States observes its 250th anniversary, the domestic mood about the state of the Union is strikingly downbeat. This stands in sharp contrast to the sentiment across the Atlantic, where despite mounting economic concerns, citizens of the European Union increasingly view their institutional framework as a vital source of stability and security.
Data from recent surveys reveal a profound divergence in national pride, institutional trust, and systemic optimism between the two unions.
In Europe, the EU is increasingly seen as a protective shield against global volatility. A June 2026 Eurobarometer survey indicates that 75% of Europeans regard the European Union as a place of stability in a troubled world, a rise of eight percentage points since late 2025. While 58% of Europeans express pessimism about the future of the world at large, their faith in the European Union’s internal mechanisms remains resilient; 59% report satisfaction with the functioning of democracy within the bloc. Critically over 70% want a more powerful EU.
Conversely, the American public feels deep institutional alienation on the eve of its semiquincentennial. A June 2026 Gallup poll reveals that extreme national pride has collapsed to a 25-year record low, with only 33% of adults reporting they are extremely proud to be Americans. Now, I wish that Gallup had defined “extremely proud” as something more than the top level choice out of five options but it still merits consideration.
According to the Pew Research Center, 69% of Americans are dissatisfied with the direction of their country, and 59% believe its best years are entirely in the past.
However, many Americans feel hope about the future. The United States has always been the country of the future: the next big thing. If Americans are dissatisfied about the present but hopeful about the future, that means they believe that change is possible and likely to come. This points to a reserve of American energy waiting to be unleashed. And that is a flashpoint, Americans who are unhappy now but also focused on the future equal a population that is motivated to right the ship of state. And that is the natural American position, not simply optimism but the drive to make it happen.
I do not pretend to understand the moral universe, the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. But from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice. —Rev. Theodore Parker, from a sermon, “Of Justice and the Conscience,” 1853
We do not need to calculate. We need to grasp with both hands and flex.
Keep bending and Happy Independence Day.
Really extremely proud.. I ask proud American but still working on extremely...
Why didn't just ask proud Americans??