As America approaches its 250th anniversary, it does so at a unique point in history. Trust in institutions is falling. Political division feels permanent. Headlines are saturated with conflict, investigations, protests, and global instability. Freedom itself feels under siege, and there are legitimate concerns about the resilience of our democracy.

But one administration, one election cycle, or one foreign policy crisis does not define a nation.

The United States operates under the world’s oldest continuously functioning written national constitution, a framework that has remained in force since 1789. And yet, in the context of civilization, America remains remarkably immature. England traces its origins back more than 1,000 years. France emerged as a kingdom in the Middle Ages. China’s civilization stretches back over 3,000 years. America, by contrast, is still in many ways an experiment, one that remains unfinished, imperfect, noisy, and deeply ambitious.

And despite all our dysfunction, it is difficult to ignore what the American system of capitalism and freedom has produced.

The U.S. economy remains the largest in the world at roughly $30 trillion in GDP, larger than China, Germany, Japan, India, and the United Kingdom combined. American capitalism, for all its excesses and inequities, has generated an unmatched engine of innovation, entrepreneurship, and productivity.

The modern world was largely built on American breakthroughs.

The United States industrialized manufacturing at scale and gave us the telephone, the airplane, mass production, the semiconductor, the internet, cloud computing, and now artificial intelligence.

Our universities remain the envy of the world. Eight of the top ten universities globally are American institutions. Harvard’s endowment alone exceeds $50 billion. Stanford helped create Silicon Valley. MIT transformed engineering and computing. U.S. universities continue to attract the world’s top scientific and entrepreneurial talent despite rising criticism over cost and ideology.

Then there is military power.

No nation in modern history has projected military capability like the United States. Its nuclear deterrent has helped prevent direct conflict between superpowers for nearly 80 years. Whatever one thinks about American foreign policy, the post-WWII order, however flawed, was largely stabilized through American power, alliances, and economic leadership.

The same is true culturally.

American movies, music, brands, and technology dominate global consumption. Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Wall Street, Nashville, and New York collectively export more cultural influence than perhaps any empire in history. Whether through jazz, rock, hip-hop, Marvel films, Netflix, or TikTok creators, America remains the center of modern entertainment and influence.

So, it is important that we not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Empires decline when they become divided, complacent, and unable to distinguish between disagreement and disintegration. Today, the world is becoming more dangerous. China is openly challenging Western dominance economically and militarily. Russia seeks to destabilize Europe and NATO. Iran continues to sponsor regional terrorism and proxy conflict. North Korea remains volatile and nuclear armed.

The new “Axis” is not merely military. It is ideological, technological, and economic. The U.S. must find a common center, where we can defend freedom, attacked by the axis of evil; Iran, China, Russia and North Korea.

And meanwhile, Americans increasingly see each other not as fellow citizens with different ideas, but as adversaries.

That may be the greatest threat of all.

The irony is that America’s strength has never been uniformity. It has always been its ability to absorb conflict, self-correct, innovate, and reinvent itself. We fought a Civil War and survived. We endured depressions, assassinations, riots, world wars, terrorism, and financial collapses. The American story has never been linear. It has always been turbulent.

But through that turbulence, America repeatedly expanded opportunity, advanced technology, defended allies, and pulled the global economy forward.

Perhaps that is the real lesson of 250 years.

And if the free world is going to remain free, America, fractured as it may be, will still need to lead.

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