So here we are on America’s 250th birthday.
Two hundred and fifty years old.
Which, if we’re being honest, is pretty young for a country.
I mean, Europe looks at us the way grandparents look at a toddler with a hammer.
“Aw, look at him. He’s trying to build a democracy. Isn’t that adorable?”
And I’ve been thinking about this a lot.
People say, “What’s happened to America?”
Nothing happened to America.
America is what it’s always been:
A giant construction project.
We’re under construction.
We’ve been under construction for 250 years.
And like any construction project, we’ve had some problems.
We’ve had budget overruns.
We’ve had delays.
We’ve had questionable contractors.
We’ve had entire sections built backward.
At one point, we actually fought a civil war because half the crew disagreed with the blueprints.
But the important thing is, we kept building.
Because I don’t think the Founding Fathers believed they were creating a finished product.
I think they were creating a work order.
They weren’t saying, “Here’s perfection.”
They were saying, “Here’s the foundation. Try not to screw it up.”
And to be fair, we’ve done both.
We’ve built incredible things.
And we’ve screwed up spectacularly.
Sometimes simultaneously.
But that’s what gives me hope.
Because when people say, “America is broken,” I don’t think that’s true.
Broken means you throw it away.
Under construction means you keep working.
You revise the plans.
You fix the mistakes.
You bring in new people.
You keep building.
And maybe that’s the real challenge of our generation.
Not to argue about whose fault it is that the drywall isn’t finished.
Not to scream about who installed the plumbing wrong in 1973.
But to finally agree on a set of plans.
To get a mandate from the American people.
And to build the country that generations before us imagined was possible.
Because after 250 years, we’re still here.
Still arguing.
Still building.
Still believing that somehow, against all odds, we can make this thing work.
And honestly?
For a construction project that’s been going on for two and a half centuries, that’s not bad.
Happy birthday, America.
Now let’s get back to work.
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