Two Hundred Fifty Glorious Years

The United States enters its 250th year in fantastic shape. Elsewhere, not so much.

Clarice Feldman | July 5, 2026

We are the oldest continuous democracy in the modern world. In large part, this is because our founders were the products of the Enlightenment who fashioned a written Constitution, which provides both freedom to citizens and checks and balances to restrain those in power. Massive celebrations are called for, with big ships, flyovers, and the largest ever fireworks display in the cleaned-up National Mall. It’s extremely hot, but that doesn’t seem to have dampened enthusiasm, and crowds have been large at scheduled events.

Just as they denigrated the effort to clean up the Tidal Basin, and initially denied it had been sabotaged, they made efforts to keep the celebration small. Mainstream media initially were reporting scarce crowds when they appeared with cameras hours before the events were scheduled. The latest effort to claim disinterest is the report that all these pyrotechnics will create dangerous air pollution. I’ve lived in Washington since 1969, in years when we had temperature inversions with leaded gasoline polluting the already dirty air, and yet the fireworks displays managed to go off without scores of people perishing from poisoned air. I expect this year will be no different. I don’t recall alarms in the press then, but Trump was not then in the White House.

As happy as we are to celebrate this national holiday, we have been mesmerized by events in Venezuela, which show the best and worst of humanity. Thousands of Caracas residents living in an earthquake zone were trapped in collapsed residences. Many apartments were in cheap government-built housing which lacked reinforcing steel and were finished in abysmal masonry -- some plastic foam with thin layers on concrete disguising the flimsy underpinnings.

Ordinary Caracans, without even shovels, wheelbarrows, or any other useful equipment, used their bare hands to peel away the debris and rescue those trapped. In........

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