I spent most of July 4th weekend sitting indoors next to the air conditioner, watching the World Cup matches. New York City has just cooled off (slightly) from a historic heat wave that saw five days in a row over 90 degrees and two days in the triple digits. Yesterday didn’t quite make 100, but it came close, and rain threatened to shut down the fireworks display next to the tall ships in the harbor.
I was an undergraduate at the time of the Bicentennial, and I remember the tall ships in the harbor then, and the celebrations all over the city. I loaded up on tchotchkes commemorating the event, including a Bicentennial Crock of cheese dip that became my desktop pencil holder for 39 years until it fell and broke in the course of my move from Albany to NYC. It almost made it to the 250th. So did we. But unlike the pencil holder, I live with the hope that the country can be put back together again. Or if it breaks into pieces, some of those pieces can become something better instead of all of them ending up in the wastebasket.
I’ve been reading a lot of essays that explore our current situation. Former Republican Jonathan V. Last, writing for the Bulwark, likens the 250th anniversary to a death vigil, comparing it to his mother-in-law now in hospice. His piece is titled “America at 250: We Had a Good Run.” He doesn’t think we’re coming back from this anytime soon, that we will have to endure a one-party dictatorship and police state, the reimposition of Jim Crow, and the stripping away of so many rights that we’ve taken for granted:
Other analysts point out that most republics fall after about 250 years. They cite Rome as an example and point out that the fall of Rome led to fragmentation and more local control. However, representative democracy lasted approximately 450 years in Rome, not 250 years, and the state’s authoritarian phase lasted another 500 years before the empire broke up. Great Britain has lasted even longer as it transitioned over eight centuries from a monarchy to constitutional republic with an elected parliament.
I don’t think it’s preordained, in other words, for democracy in the U.S. to give way to authoritarian rule after 250 years. And it may not even happen. If the Congressional election in November happens, is free and fair, if the votes are counted accurately, and if the people of the country do not once again choose, as they did in November 2024, a right-wing authoritarian party based on race-based Christian nationalism, we can survive with a divided government — until the next national election. Unfortunately, until one party renounces the authoritarian blueprint embodied in Project 2025, every election will be a referendum on liberal democracy and the equality of all people under the law.
Do we celebrate, then, or do we mourn? I don’t think we do either. We get to work. We contest the election the way that people in Chile did in 1988 and the people of Hungary did in April of this year, knowing it’s an uphill battle but one we can win.
