Jul. 3-We mark our 248th birthday today, and like the previous 247, this one is worth celebrating.

As Americans, we are sometimes guilty of overemphasizing the trappings of the observance - fireworks, parades, cookouts, apple pie - while dismissing what should be the true spirit of the day, a celebration of the ideals that birthed this great nation.

Inspired by the ideals of the Enlightenment, built on a bedrock of freedom and equality, our founding was so unique that George Washington called it "the great experiment."

"The establishment of our new Government seemed to be the last great experiment for promoting human happiness," Washington said in 1790, 14 years after the United States gained its independence from Britain.

More than 200 years later, the words ring with a moral clarity meant to rouse what President Abraham Lincoln called our better angels. But words are only as powerful as the acts they inspire. The freedom the Founding Fathers touted was freedom for some, not all.

"As a result of George Washington's untiring efforts to promote what he called the 'glorious cause' of expanding liberty and republican values, he gave his beloved country a priceless gift," Peter Henriques, an emeritus history professor at George Mason University, wrote in a 2011 essay.

It is also true, however, that our ideals have sometimes exceeded our ability to fulfill them. We have seen it throughout our history - practices, including slavery and Jim Crow laws, that violated the very ideals that inspired our Founding Fathers - and we continue to see it today. Voter suppression and election denialism undermine the democratic ideals we celebrate on this day. Is the type of broad presidential immunity endorsed by the U.S. Supreme Court this week in keeping with the ideals of the Founding Fathers?

These are dark days for our country, a nation flirting with authoritarianism. Democrats absorbed a gut punch during last week's debate, but it was "little d" democracy that suffered the most damaging blow. Neither President Joe Biden nor former President Donald Trump presented a cogent vision for leading America into the future. One seemed frail and confused, the other dishonest and dastardly.

With our nation's seemingly inherent optimism, we look ahead on Independence Day. It seems natural. All birthdays point us forward, and this one is no different.

And yet it is instructive to look backward - not to get mired in the past but to learn from it. We were born in turbulence, and tumult has continued throughout this "great experiment." The journey has been hard but triumphant.

We have overcome multiple crises - the Civil War, World War II, the ugly battle over civil rights - and emerged a better nation, more forthright and honorable.

Problems persist. But today, of all days, we must trust that a nation built on democratic ideals will adhere to them.

We sometimes forget that, as our Pledge of Allegiance tells us, we are one nation.

We also forget that we are a great nation because of how we have dealt with our problems. The Civil War freed the slaves, and while oppression continued throughout much of the South, the landmark civil rights legislation of the 1960s addressed many of those inequities.

"There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what is right in America," former President Bill Clinton once said.

So, yes, this is still a great country, fiercely proud of its accomplishments and, more important, fiercely determined to continue building a society where even greater accomplishments are possible. We are not there yet. It is a massive challenge, but one that is not beyond our reach.

In return for our precious freedom, we owe this country the debt of exercising that freedom wisely and diligently, regardless of our political ideology. We must study the presidential candidates to separate fact from fiction. Political observers are right: Democracy is at stake.

If our history teaches us anything, it is that those who dream great things perform great things. This is what today is all about. It is not about cookouts and fireworks; it is about hope and promise. Happy birthday, America.

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This story was originally published July 3, 2024, 10:59 PM.