OPINION: America250: Remembering what holds us together

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, we are tempted — especially in loud and unsettled moments — to ask whether we are still holding together at all. But history suggests a better question: How have we made it this far?

From the moment the Declaration of Independence was signed, America has faced serious challenges. Each generation has been tested and warned that this moment might finally break the American experiment.

And yet, here we are. America has endured because it was built on ideas articulated plainly in the Declaration of Independence and carefully structured in the Constitution.

Here’s why that matters. The Declaration did something radical for its time: it asserted that rights do not come from government, kings, or majorities, but from our Creator — and that all people are born with equal dignity. The Constitution followed by providing a durable framework for self-government, restraint on power, and peaceful change. Together, they formed both a founding moment and a firm foundation.

At our best, Americans have returned to these principles when the country felt most fractured — after war, injustice, fear, and failure. Not because we always lived up to them, but because they reminded us who we were supposed to be and provided a North Star to guide us back when we lost our way. That guidance matters now more than ever.

As we recognize America250, the temptation will be to turn this anniversary into either a glossy celebration or a cynical accounting of grievances. Neither does justice to the moment. The real value of 250 years is not perfection, but perseverance — and the recommitment to repair what is broken without discarding the ideals that make us a nation rather than a collection of factions.

If America is to endure, we must also be honest about what threatens to pull us apart. The rise of hateful rhetoric and destructive behavior on the extremes — on both ends of our political spectrum — has done real damage to our civic culture. When outrage replaces reason, opponents become enemies. When power matters more than principle, the foundations begin to crack.

Extremes have always existed in American life. The danger comes when we let them define us. Rejecting extremism doesn’t mean giving up conviction — it means refusing the idea that we must choose between the loudest voices on either side. The Constitution was built for a free people who could disagree strongly yet remain committed to shared rules and mutual respect.

Here in Idaho, that instinct runs deep. The long-held character of Idaho rests on a simple truth: liberty is not license, that dignity belongs to every person — not because of ideology or identity, but because it is inherent. We also know that patriotism doesn’t demand uniformity, but it does require character. Those beliefs are not accidental but come straight from America’s founding principles. The Declaration set our moral compass. The Constitution gave us the tools to act on it over time. Returning to those principles, rather than discarding them when inconvenient, has carried us through our hardest chapters, and will carry us forward again.

America 250 isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about understanding that our freedoms were hard-won, imperfectly applied, and worth preserving. It’s about recognizing that the dignity of every American isn’t a slogan — it’s a civic duty.

If the next 250 years are to mean anything, they will depend on our willingness to remember what has always held us together: shared ideals, constitutional restraint, moral courage, and a quiet faith that a free people, grounded in principle, can still govern themselves.

That belief has seen us through before. There is every reason to believe it can again.

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Becky Funk is the former chair of the Legislative District 4 Republican Committee.