Roger Bowen lives in Prospect Harbor. His last book is titled “Japan’s Dysfunctional Democracy.”

Birthdays are a time when many of us take stock of our life and of the wider society and think about how they might change in the future. We can perform this exercise for nations as well.

For America in particular a recent opinion poll by Gallup shows that only 19% of Americans say that the Founders would be pleased with how well democracy works in America; three-quarters say the Founders would be disappointed; and a startling 38% of Americans believe that democracy as we know it will not survive another 250 years.

The picture darkens: a Pew poll says that 69% of all Americans today believe that democratic institutions may no longer be able to solve America’s problems.

At the close of 2025, the public approval rating of Congress was 10%; it improved to 24% this month. The executive branch — President Donald Trump — has rapidly declining rates of public approval, now hovering around 35%. The approval ratings for the U.S. Supreme Court are a barely respectable 40%.

Add the fact that over half of all young people say that the freedom of speech is not all that important, that it is acceptable to censor people holding beliefs different from their own. A darker future awaits, perhaps the reason that Freedom House says our democracy is “flawed.”

Why now? Call it “the Trump Effect.” Donald Trump understands that many Americans question our representative democracy because in practice the system takes so much private wealth in taxation from the poor and middle classes. American citizens have long wanted more government services but do not appreciate having to pay for them.

If government fails to build infrastructure and schools, if it does not keep the nation safe, if it favors the rich over the poor, whites over Blacks, and so on, public support declines. Citizens may not want to hear this, but they own our political system so long as free and open elections result in seating one of their own in Congress to represent them.

How we got to this point is clear: propertied and elite Americans had to issue a call to rebel against their British colonial overlords for the right of self-governance. Known famously as the Declaration of Independence, it was approved by the Continental Congress on July 2, 1776.

The Declaration invoked the very same Enlightenment values that the British had adopted for themselves — natural rights, the rule of law and government by consent. Thomas Jefferson’s prose shaped these same values, or “self-evident truths,” into an American philosophy legitimizing rebellion whenever a tyrannical power threatens the “life, liberty and happiness [/property]” of a people having “inalienable rights.”

Canadian philosopher C.B. Macpherson showed that in late 18th century America, “happiness,” always a difficult concept to measure, actually meant “property” in the Founders’ minds. Owning property 250 years ago might not have made citizens happier, but it certainly meant that they could vote for a representative to Congress if they too were white males and propertied. African slaves, Native Americans, the poor, indentured servants and women were excluded.

Implicit in the Declaration and the Bill of Rights was recognition that rights denied or extended to any one group might well be denied or granted to other groups. Expansion of the franchise to assure government by consent of the governed required expanding rights to those groups excluded initially.

Black male property owners came first in a few states and then with two amendments to the Bill of Rights — the 14th, providing “equal protection under the law,” which was intended to address so-called “Jim Crow” laws of the Southern states, and the 19th, which guaranteed the franchise to all Black men and all Black and white women.

A few years later, in 1924, the vote was finally granted to Native Americans and in 1975 President Ford signed a bill giving non-English-speaking citizens the same voting rights. Rights denied earlier to Chinese and Japanese citizens were overturned by the courts.

The Dred Scott (1857) decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which said Blacks, whether slave or free, would never be permitted to become citizens, became toxic as government became ever more inclusive. Then 30 million immigrants arriving in three waves (1815-1914) gained the rights of citizenship once naturalized, but it took the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to bring genuine, government-protected voting equality to all American citizens.

Jefferson and the other Founders the Declaration included an essential contradiction that plagues American democracy still. Individuals are equally endowed with “inalienable rights” and in order to make these rights secure, they instituted government that derives its “just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Ergo, in light of the experience with British tyranny, the Founders accepted the need for governmental rule — think of Jefferson’s quip in 1804 that said if men were angels, government would not be needed — while simultaneously giving the governed basic rights against any government that violates the popular will.

Much of this ground was adeptly covered by President Obama at the dedication of the Obama Presidential Center (and Library) on June 18 of this year. This event, which all former presidents and their spouses (except for Trump, who was likely watching the event on TV in the White House) attended, was striking for exemplifying what we can call “the Obama Effect.” The audience was racially diverse, the music came from a mixture (Black, white, Latino) of performers and Obama spoke thoughtfully about democracy, how government works, which reforms are needed and how it strengthens community.

Barack and Michelle both spoke passionately about personal choices (a woman’s right to choose, college faculty’s right to choose textbooks, etc.) and shared values — the moral imperative to call out bullies, the sycophants who “swear” allegiance to the person of the president because they do not understand (or accept) the constitutional constraints on government; the elected leaders who start wars they cannot finish; and liars in government who try to cover up their failures in office, often by deflecting public bile toward one’s predecessors.

For me, the 250th birthday of our great nation started and ended with the opening of the Obama Presidential Center. It was a heartwarming, inclusive event for Americans of all races, which are treated equally [DEI alert: diversity, equality, inclusiveness].

At about the same time as President Obama was speaking, Trump sent a text to his MAGA cultists asserting that he, Donald Trump, has more power than any leader in history. Apart from the obvious contrast, who are you going to believe: a cool president (“No Drama Obama”) who emphasizes that leadership means serving Americans as a moral example or a megalomaniac who believes he is (or should be) king of the world?