In Our View: Reflect on nation’s virtues, capacity for renewal

Driven by political discord, examinations of the United States’ past and pressing domestic and international crises, our nation is in a bit of a funk.

A recent Gallup poll indicates that 41 percent of Americans say they are “extremely proud” to be American; another 26 percent say they are “very proud.” The combined 67 percent is in line with recent years, but indicates a crisis of confidence compared with numbers that were consistent from 2000 to 2017.

The Fourth of July, however, provides an opportunity for reflection upon our nation’s virtues and its capacity for renewal and reinvigoration. We have been through difficult times before, but the character of our people and the sturdiness of our governmental system have allowed the American experiment to endure.

In the 1830s, after taking a close look at American democracy, Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville wrote: “The position of the Americans is therefore quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one.”

Thus was the idea of American exceptionalism first articulated — a notion that free elections and free markets generate a dynamic sense of freedom. It is an exceptionalism born of the ideals that all people are created equal, that opportunity for advancement should be available to all, and that nobody is above the law. We have not always lived up to those ideals, but they remain within reach.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed …” reads a portion of the Declaration of Independence, initially penned by Thomas Jefferson.

A resolution calling for independence was passed by the Second Continental Congress on July 2, 1776. Two days later, on July 4, Congress ratified the text of the declaration. The rest, as they say, is history; but it is a history that bears repeating and warrants thorough study, considering that it retains startling relevance today.

After all, preparing to sign the declaration, John Hancock reputedly said, “We must be unanimous; there must be no pulling different ways; we must all hang together.” To which Benjamin Franklin allegedly replied, “Yes, we must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

According to historians, these likely are spurious quotes. But they capture the mood of the nation’s early days.

The Declaration of Independence set the stage for colonists to rebuff control by the king of England. A lengthy revolution would eventually result in that independence, with the nascent United States forming a governmental system spelled out by the U.S. Constitution.

It is those humble beginnings that we celebrate today, in recognition of our nation’s 248th birthday. And while we honor those traditions, we also must recognize their fragility. A failure to accept the results of free and fair elections and the thought that some positions warrant immunity from the law are existential threats to American exceptionalism.

Those truths might not come to mind today, on the occasion of barbecues and family gatherings and community celebrations. But they must be uppermost in the minds of all Americans who embrace this nation’s traditions and desire to see them endure.

Happy Fourth of July.