Published On 4/7/2026
Among the fireworks, military parades, and celebrations that fill the streets of Washington to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America, a question emerges that is deeper than the celebrations themselves: Does the United States still represent the idea upon which it was founded two and a half centuries ago, or has that idea changed with time and political transformations?
A report by Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Washington, Muhammad Al-Ahmad, indicates that the controversy, a quarter of a millennium after the Declaration of Independence, no longer revolves only around the history of the state, but also around its identity, its future, and its role in a world witnessing rapid changes, internal divisions, and a decline in international confidence in its leadership.
Political analyst Matthew Continetti believes that the United States was not an influential global power in its beginnings, and therefore it was not the subject of widespread attention from the rest of the world, explaining that Americans have viewed their country since its founding as a democracy based on the principles of freedom, including freedom of expression and religious freedom.
But at the same time, he points out that these principles carried clear contradictions from the beginning, the most prominent of which was the continuation of the slavery system, which made the American experience combine slogans of freedom with facts that contradicted them.
Over time, the United States turned into the largest political, military, and economic power in the world, but its external image was no longer what it was.
According to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center, confidence in the American role has declined in a number of countries around the world, coinciding with the escalation of wars, international crises, and geopolitical divisions in recent years, which has reopened the debate about the status of the United States and its global role.
Big contradictions
For his part, political scientist Francis Fukuyama believes that the United States today is not the country that the world knew before President Donald Trump returned to the political scene, considering that the country has entered a different phase that contradicts in many aspects its historical path.
Fukuyama asserts that the American character has always been characterized by a clear duality, but this duality has become more present today, explaining that there are “United States” at home that differ in their behavior and values from other “United States” in their foreign policy, which reflects the magnitude of the contradictions surrounding the American experience.
This division is not limited to the world’s view of the United States, but extends to the American interior itself, where the media no longer provides a unified narrative regarding the meaning of the occasion.
Conservative channels focus on celebrating the restoration of American power and greatness, while major news organizations highlight the political division and challenges facing democracy, while prominent newspapers provide a more critical reading of American history, reviewing its major achievements, but not ignoring its failures and contradictions.
This media discrepancy reflects the extent of the division over the definition of the United States itself, and whether it still embodies the principles on which it was founded, or whether it is facing a new phase that is reformulating its political concept internally and externally.
Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Washington, Muhammad Al-Ahmad, concludes that the controversy surrounding the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States is not related to the past as much as it is related to the future. The future of American democracy, the future of American power, and the future of Washington’s role in the international system, in light of an ongoing debate about the meaning of the United States, and how Americans and the world see it two and a half centuries after its birth.
