EDITORIAL: U.S. must keep striving for the common good
It is a remarkable experiment, one that remains imperfect but retains the framework for growth and improvement. One that allows a free citizenry to strive toward its potential. One that someday will fully live up to the ethos that all people are created equal.
As discussed in Thursday's editorial, the United States was born of bold ideals and risky propositions. Now, as we celebrate its 250th birthday, that nation has developed into the undisputed global leader - not only for its economic and military might, but for what it represents to the rest of the world.
As President Ronald Reagan explained on July 4, 1984: "You don't have to travel too far in the world to realize that we stand as a beacon, that America is today what it was two centuries ago, a place that dreamers dream of."
That status has been called into question at times and tattered at others over the years. Yet those who believe in the American experiment must maintain faith that the ideals spelled out and the systems established centuries ago will endure.
As Founder James Madison wrote: "We are free today substantially, but the day will come when our Republic will be an impossibility. It will be an impossibility because wealth will be concentrated in the hands of a few. A Republic cannot stand upon bayonets, and when the day comes when the wealth of the nation will be in the hands of a few, then we must rely upon the wisdom of the best elements in the country to readjust the laws of the nations to the changed conditions."
Significantly, Madison wrote at length about the dangers of factions in public life, recognizing that divisions forge information silos and tribal thinking. The opening line of Federalist No. 10 states, "Among the numerous advantages promised by a well-constructed union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of faction."
Modern factions undoubtedly inhibit our nation's progress. But they will irreparably fracture our union only when we allow them to. Only when those tasked with providing checks and balances allow duty to politics to outweigh duty to country. Only when citizens see their fellow Americans as enemies rather than comrades.
We are, to be honest, near that point. Rarely in our nation's history have divisions been as evident, as powerful, as threatening. But such divisions are not unprecedented. They have existed in the past, and our union has survived, often emerging slightly more perfect than it was before.
As former President Barack Obama said during a recent interview: "When this experiment works, it gives the world a little bit of hope, because it says it is possible for human beings who are not bound by tribe or race or blood, but are instead bound by an idea, that they can somehow work together and arrive at a common good."
To find that common good, we must embrace the principles spelled out in the Declaration of Independence and the structure defined in the U.S. Constitution. We must act as though all people are created equal; we must hold leaders accountable when they violate the Constitution - and expect other elected and appointed officials to do the same.
Cultural divisions change with time, even when they are exacerbated by politicians eager to exploit them. But, in the end, those divisions must not be allowed to scuttle the mission that was launched 250 years ago.
The reason for that mission was clearly articulated: to form a more perfect union. And it is cause for celebration this weekend.
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