BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  JUL 31, 2026

Normally, important anniversaries such as the Fourth of July, or national crises such as 9/11, tend to reignite national pride, patriotic fervor, and a temporary truce between political combatants.

There has been that. In my neighborhoods, there were backyard parties, fireworks (some I am not sure were legal), and porches draped in patriotic bunting. Old Glory waved from the front door frames. A couple of streets close by were lined with small flags all along the block.

Now, here comes that overused qualifier…In spite of that…

It was unlike the 1976 Bicentennial. I fortunately got to observe that 4th celebration from the White House South Lawn as a new and naïve member of the Gerald Ford What House staff.

Even though the nation was amid turmoil—the end of the Vietnam War; social and racial unrest; a bad economy (President Ford’s slogan was Whip Inflation Now, replete with WIN buttons); and a Richard Nixon hangover—there was a national calm and a sense that our worst days were behind us. President Ford made speeches, but his purpose was to keep the focus off of him and on the country.

Since 1976, the country has changed, politically, socially, culturally, and spiritually. The settling of the nation did not last long.

A protracted line of research studies and surveys and simple observation have documented the worsening of public trust in government, the rise of disillusionment, the polarization in our politics, and lowered confidence in public officials and the political system from which they came.

A new research survey by the Wall Street Journal reconfirmed it. “Some 35 percent of respondents …said patriotism was important to them personally, down from more than 60 percent in 2019…Only 12 percent say democracy is working very well or extremely well, and a mere 16 percent say average citizens have considerable influence on politics.”

The survey also found that “fewer than 40 percent of Americans said they were very proud of American history, and that faith is low in many of the traditional features of the country’s national identity, including patriotism, the promise of the American dream and the country’s self-image as a leader among nations.”

Most believe America is in decline and believe our best days are behind us. Negative ratings of the President and the Congress are in the cellar. The dire state of the nation over time has become not only chronic, it is now a spider web of complexity that it is almost impossible to untangle.

It makes you wonder what the founders of our country, who sacrificed so much and raised great hope for us, would think of their handiwork today.

How do we unpack this baggage? How do we rationalize where we are, who we are, and what the future holds without defaulting to the emotional tirades that too often accompany political and social commentary and personal exchanges?

My easy answer? ‘Hell if I know.’

Unpacking the baggage is tough mostly because there is so much to unpack. And the need for a step back is overshadowed by so many pressing national and international crises.

The roots of our dilemma run very deep, like the taproot of the young Oak tree, which grows down into the soil for its strength and nourishment.

But it is deep into the depths of our dilemma that I believe we must look for the root causes, not to belabor the metaphor. In this fast-paced, what-have-you-done-for-me lately environment, we tend to seek resolution of our problems in shallow, immediate solutions that may well be valid, but are a mile wide and an inch deep. They perpetuate the myth that we can let politicians deal with the issues, while we get on with our lives.

How’s that working out for the country?

The problem is that politicians alone can’t fix this, and they demonstrate that every day.

Historian Jon Meecham touched on the quandary recently during a webinar hosted by the National Constitution Center. He talked about Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, which heralded the rebirth of the Republic, and its linkage to what we celebrate this year.

The last of the nine sentences in that Gettysburg address was his focus. Lincoln closed by saying:

“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Those few words, “of the people, by the people, for the people…” have not lost their value in 126 years, proving Lincoln wrong when he said in the same speech that “we will little note, nor long remember what was said on that day.”

Meecham made the point that this government cannot be for the people unless it is by the people.

It is embodied in the well-worded response Benjamin Franklin gave to Philadelphia socialite and friend of George Washington, Elizabeth Willing Powel, outside Constitution Hall where the Constitution had just been written in 1789. “What have you given us, a Republic or a monarchy?” she asked. “A Republic, if you can keep it,” he replied.

The Preamble to that Constitution set that tone in the first three words. The Republic is ours as long as We the People exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, which ensures that the people are on the front end of public policy and not just the hind end.

So that takes us back to what Franklin told Ms. Powel.

The Republic is ours if we can keep it. It is our responsibility and long past time to step up by going back to the basics.