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America at 250

America at 250

Last updated on: July 3, 2026 at 6:00 am by Gene Veith

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America at 250 2026-06-29T14:45:06-04:00 Gene Veith

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The United States of America turns 250 on July 4. What a milestone! But Americans are having a hard time getting excited about it.

As Susan Page in USA Today writes,

America is not in a party mood.

Even as the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence − a celebration of the founding of the world’s oldest modern constitutional democracy − most Americans are mired in dissatisfaction with the nation’s present and pessimism about its future.

By double digits in recent polls, they predict the country’s best years are behind us, with more peril than promise ahead.

For the Left, President Trump has put a damper on their patriotism. Some Democrats are even refusing to fly the flag. Some will still fly it, but with an asterix: “If we do fly the flag,” one citizen told NBC, “we will also put out signs to make it clear that we are not MAGA.”

He doesn’t want anyone to think he wants to Make America Great Again! Worrying about what people driving by his house might think of him if they see his flag, he signals his virtue by dividing himself from his countrymen.

But even the MAGA side is kind of depressed. They want to Make America Great Again, which makes them fixated on the notion that America isn’t all that great right now. Besides, many Trump enthusiasts feel a little disillusioned, since the president they had so much hope for is presiding over another Middle East war and a disappointing economy.

We are going through a national malaise. That word calls to mind Jimmy Carter’s notorious “malaise” speech, though it never mentioned that word. Three years after the Bicentennial, President Carter got on national television to tell Americans struggling with high unemployment, 10% inflation, and an energy shortage, that the country has a deeper problem:

I want to speak to you first tonight about a subject even more serious than energy or inflation. I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy.

I do not mean our political and civil liberties. They will endure. And I do not refer to the outward strength of America, a nation that is at peace tonight everywhere in the world, with unmatched economic power and military might.

The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our Nation.

The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.

Ronald Reagan ridiculed what he labeled Carter’s “malaise” speech, and when Reagan was elected president that next year, the national mood shifted. It was now “morning in America,” marked by feelings of relief, letting go of the past, and a new optimism. Carter’s speech was blamed for his defeat, but maybe he was just ahead of his time.

Probably the pendulum will swing back, as it always does, and the 2028 election will make us feel better.

In the meantime, though, we have a quarter-of-a-millennium anniversary to celebrate!

There are actually a lot of good events being staged to celebrate the 250th. Here is a site tracking all of the observances throughout the year, from a traveling exhibit of founding documents to a coordinated nation-wide block party. The Great American State Fair on the National Mall actually sounds fun and interesting, with exhibits and pavilions from all over the country (except a few spoil sport blue states that are refusing to participate, though private individuals from those states have still put something together).

One phenomenon, though, is getting Americans’ patriotic juices going. The year of the 250th celebration is also the year North America is hosting the World Cup, the global soccer tournament that is arguably the world’s biggest sporting event. Games are being played at eleven U.S. cities (Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, East Rutherford [NJ], Philadelphia, Seattle, and San Francisco).

Americans haven’t been wild about this “beautiful game,” but the World Cup is bringing multitudes of soccer fans from all over the world to the U.S.A. International tourists who come here usually hit the glamor spots, like New York City, Los Angeles, Yellowstone, and the Grand Canyon. But now being there for their national teams brings them to flyover spots in the rest of America. And the internet lets them post their impressions of America.

Our international guests are rhapsodizing about Texas BBQ and free re-fills, Buc-ee’s and Costco, the size of our houses and our wide open spaces, and–significantly–how friendly and welcoming they are finding ordinary Americans.

Here is a compilation video of what they are saying. (Here is a link to many, many more.) Note the expressions on their faces:

The Wall Street Journal offers some explanations for these kinds of reactions in a story about Dutch visitors to Parkland, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City, entitled European Soccer Fans Marvel at the Splendor of America’s Suburbs.

The article points out that the average American home is about 1,800 square feet, with newer houses being considerably larger. In Europe, homes are on the average 1,100 square feet.

The American per-capita gross domestic product in 2024 was $85,000. In the European Union, it’s $43,000. By comparison, America’s poorest state, Mississippi, has a per-capita gross domestic product of $53,872.

“People are so rich here,” said one of the Dutch visitors to Missouri. “I think that’s why they can be so nice.” Well, rich people are not always so nice, often having the habit of looking down on ordinary folks. But it’s the ordinary folks the visitor had been hanging out with. His point is that, by his European standards, these nice, ordinary Americans are rich!

That’s not the whole story, of course, as the journalists remind us, since Europeans often have lower prices and a host of free benefits, such as health care, that need to be factored in. But the World Cup tourists offer a more objective view of the USA, whose qualities we citizens, with all of our complaints, take for granted.

We do really have it good in this country. The Europeans might have been even more impressed with our less material benefits that they likely don’t have where they live, such as freedom of speech and protections from double jeopardy.

But there is a genuine connection between American liberties and American abundance. It deserves celebrating.

Illustration: 250 Years U.S. Flag via PublicDomainPictures, CC0 Public Domain

America's 250th birthday

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FIFA World Cup 2026

foreign visitors on America

Independence Day

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July 2, 2026

When I Was at the Bicentennial

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July 6, 2026 Monday Miscellany, 7/6/26

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