America250

Daily Digest 7/3/26

In just a few hours, the United States of America will celebrate its 250th birthday. On Thursday, July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress officially approved the Declaration of Independence, forever breaking thirteen North American colonies from their mother country of Great Britain.

Of course, this was only the beginning. There were many trials and tribulations yet to come for our Founding Fathers. The war with Britain continued for several years, and struggles to form a cohesive government continued as well. Yet this is the moment upon which Americans look back as the birth of our nation.

As a nation, America is still fairly young—we are not surrounded by centuries of heritage like Britain, France, or Japan. Yet as a country, a state, America has stood the test of time. In that sense, we are older than France (1958), Germany (1949), Russia (1991), and many other countries with much older cultures.

Over the course of 250 years, this nation born in the New World helped build the modern world. It was in America that the telegraph and telephone were invented, where Henry Ford revolutionized manufacturing by making automobiles affordable through the assembly line, and where pioneers of flight and space exploration—from the Wright brothers to Charles Lindbergh, Chuck Yeager, and Neil Armstrong—pushed the boundaries of human achievement. It was in America that the atom was first split and where, decades later, a rocket booster was first safely landed upright.

It all began with a few brave men in 1776. What will we accomplish in the next 250 years?

Idaho celebrates America250

Dorothy Moon

Two hundred fifty years is an amazing achievement for a nation. In 1776, English settlers from Virginia, Massachusetts, and the rest of the colonies put their names on a document that would change the world. They not only declared their independence from Great Britain, but also set forth a new philosophy of liberty, of government by the people and for the people, and of something never before seen in human history: a new nation based not on ancient claims or the divine right of kings, but on a people coming together of their own accord.

Americans have always been conscious of our place in history, and on this 250th anniversary of our independence, it’s important to strengthen our connection to those who came before us.

Raúl Labrador

A republic survives only as long as its people still believe in it and are willing to defend it. American culture, forged through faith, family, hard work, and a shared commitment to liberty, gave rise to the Constitution and has kept it alive for 250 years. When elite institutions teach children to see their own country as a source of shame rather than pride, they cut the next generation off from the inheritance they need to keep the republic going.

As Benjamin Franklin left the Constitutional Convention in 1787, he was asked whether the delegates had created a republic or a monarchy. His reply has outlasted every one of them: “A republic, if you can keep it.” Keeping it requires more than institutions and laws. It requires a people who still love this country enough to defend what makes it worth keeping.

Phil McGrane

Two hundred years ago, on July 4, 1826, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died within hours of each other, exactly fifty years after the Declaration of Independence was signed. Two of the men who had argued, debated, and ultimately helped bring an entirely new form of self-government into the world lived just long enough to see the republic reach its fiftieth birthday.

Two hundred years later, we get to see it reach 250. The republic they launched remains a work in progress. It has endured challenges, triumphs, and real setbacks. It continues because each generation has accepted responsibility for carrying it forward. As you celebrate tomorrow, whether at one of the hundreds of community events across the state, the Capitol Celebration in Boise, out in Idaho’s vast outdoors, or at home with people you love, I hope you’ll take a moment to appreciate just how extraordinary that is, and what it asks of us.

Camille Blaylock

We should fly the flag. Light the fireworks. We should teach our children about Lexington and Concord, Valley Forge, Yorktown, and the 56 men who signed their names to a document that could have just as easily become their death warrant.

We should remember the generations who fought, sacrificed, worked, invented, built, and prayed to bring this country to its 250th year.

And we should say without reservation that America is exceptional.. because it is.

Not because Americans are a superior class of human beings. Not because our history is free from sin or failure. But because America was founded upon superior ideas:

• The individual does not belong to the state. The state belongs to the people.

• Our rights come from God. Government exists to secure them.

• And free people - through faith, family, work, courage, and responsibility - can accomplish more than any central authority could ever plan for them.

Wayne Hoffman

There is, truly, much to celebrate in the American experience and in the recognition 250 years ago that when government turns tyrannical, a people must reevaluate their connection to it. But the work did not end in that Philadelphia hall in 1776. The Declaration was a profound step in human evolution, not the final one.

What do we want to do with it next? Much of today’s celebration focuses on issues long in the rearview mirror and only dimly understood. It is time to better understand what was so that we can also attend to what is. Improving our understanding of why independence was fought and died for allows us — the beneficiaries of that past — to ask whether we’ve lived up to our founders’ promise.

I might not get a post out tomorrow (I’ll either be celebrating with friends and family or helping deliver a baby—it’s any day now!) so allow me to wish you a wonderful Independence Day. A nation’s 250th birthday only happens once, so let’s make the most of it.

Nearly a year ago, Idaho GOP chairwoman Dorothy Moon asked me to design an America250 logo for party publications. I put this together in Canva, and I think it came out all right. Graphic designers will certainly spot places where it could be improved, and professionals later produced stronger versions for the convention and other events, but I enjoyed the process of building it.

Let it stand as a small reminder of what America has been, and what it can still become.

As always, thank you to sponsors Lynn Bradescu’s Boise Realty, Money Metals, and New Saint Andrews College. Thank you also to all the paid subscribers who make it possible for me to do what I do, as well as all the readers who are constantly encouraging me to keep it up. I appreciate you!