Opinion

The lesson we can learn from Bicentennial history is to party like it’s 1976

A 1976 Gallup poll found 77% of Americans believed the country had achieved its founding ideals despite years of turmoil

By Michael Auslin Fox News

Published July 3, 2026 5:00am EDT

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JD Vance addresses military, celebrates 250 years of American history

JD Vance speaks to military personnel, celebrating 250 years of American history. He emphasizes that the military ensures the Constitution's meaning and protects liberty, calling them 'the very best part of the United States of America.'

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Can Americans come together over the next week to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary? With the country seemingly split into irreconcilable, and increasingly violent, camps, storm clouds darken the summer commemorations. Those worrying that the Semiquincentennial will be a giant bust should look no further than the Bicentennial. Plagued by similar fears, the Bicentennial turned into the biggest party the country had ever seen. Today, Americans should take heart and party like it’s 1976.

America’s two-hundredth anniversary came either at the worst possible moment or just in time. The previous 13 years had been among the most violent and disruptive since the Great Depression, possibly even the Civil War. The upheavals of the Civil Rights Movement had been punctuated by the tragic assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. America’s postwar consensus had spectacularly disintegrated barely two decades after the resounding victory in World War II.

To many, America had fundamentally changed. After the assassinations and riots, and the lies of Vietnam and Watergate, the country had become more cynical and distrusting of government, the elites, and big business. As a Boston Globe columnist wrote, the great issue in the 1976 presidential campaign would be "to restore confidence of the American people in their government and themselves," short of which he feared the country would........

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