Conservatism

Steven Greenhut | 12.25.2025 7:30 AM

I grew up a few miles from where George Washington and his Continental Army crossed the Delaware River to launch a surprise attack on Hessian mercenary soldiers stationed in Trenton, N.J. Down on his luck, Washington launched this audacious military strike on Christmas, sending three groups (only one made it) across the ice-choked waters on small cargo boats during a ferocious storm.

In my teen years, a friend and I re-enacted the crossing in his canoe. The river is only 300-feet wide at the crossing point and we attempted it on a summer day, but we mangled the metal boat on some rocks. Anyway, Washington's maneuvers—memorialized by a German-American artist in 1851—was a turning point in the history of our country.

As America prepares for its Semiquincentennial—a tongue-twisting term referring to its 250th birthday—we'll be hearing much about the revolution, our history and the nation's future. The think tank I work for, the R Street Institute, is hosting myriad related events as an opportunity "to reinvigorate the American creed of self-government and principled pluralism in an era of political division and institutional distrust."

American democracy is going through some trials, as we deal with a ruling party that's committed to disruption, savors the obliteration of........

© Reason.com