America at 250

Reclaiming the exceptionalism that built the greatest nation on Earth

AMERICA AT 250

Reclaiming the exceptionalism that built the greatest nation on Earth

Kendall Qualls

As fireworks light the sky this July 4th and we mark the 250th anniversary of American independence, we celebrate more than a birthday. We honor the most successful experiment in human freedom the world has ever known—an experiment that delivered unprecedented abundance, opportunity, and dignity to ordinary people.

No nation in history has lifted the average citizen to the standard of living enjoyed by everyday Americans. Our system of liberty and limited government created wealth and mobility unmatched anywhere on earth. George Washington himself embodied the promise of this new republic. He included black Americans in the Continental Army, making it the most integrated fighting force in U.S. history until the Vietnam War. In his will, Washington directed that his slaves be freed upon the death of his wife Martha—more than sixty years before the nation finally abolished slavery. Washington’s estate was, of course, in Virginia, the South. The eight Northern states had all abolished slavery shortly after independence.

No other country fought a civil war to end slavery within its own borders. While the transatlantic slave trade was a horrific chapter in human history, only about four percent of enslaved Africans were brought to North America. Their descendants have since achieved levels of prosperity, education, and freedom greater than those of descendants in any other nation—including the nations of Africa itself.

Despite being a young country by global standards, the United States has produced more patents and technological breakthroughs than any other nation in history. That is the fruit of a culture that rewards merit, risk-taking, and individual initiative. It is why people from every corner of the globe still see America as the land of freedom and opportunity—the place where they can build a better life for their families through hard work and faith in tomorrow.

A Nation Under Attack from Within

For decades now, almost 75 percent of faculty in American colleges and universities have identified as liberal while only about 15 percent are “middle of the road” and just under 11 percent are conservative. Of the liberals, socialists and Marxists comprise roughly 40 percent of faculty. These professors have infected three to four generations of students with Marxist, anti-American ideology. Tragically, partly as a result of faculty ideological imbalance, these students have not received a holistic education with respect to our nation’s virtues and achievements. The result is predictable and devastating: only 19 percent of Americans age 45 and younger can pass the U.S. citizenship test. Among Americans aged 18–34, only 45 percent said they would stay and fight if our country were invaded. More, 48 percent, said they would leave. Our young people have been taught America’s sins in exhaustive detail while hearing almost nothing of its unmatched virtues. Consequently, we now have the least patriotic generation in our history.

We also face the lowest church attendance in the life of our republic. A secular worldview has displaced the biblical understanding of human nature, rights, and responsibility that shaped our founding. The consequences are everywhere: the lowest marriage rates and birth rates in American history. Young people are willing to dismiss the First Amendment to stifle debate and discussion.

At the same time, we are absorbing large numbers of immigrants who show little interest in assimilating into the language, culture, and values that made America exceptional. That approach is not sustainable. A nation cannot remain itself if it stops requiring newcomers to become Americans in more than name only.

Our public schools deliver the lowest academic performance in generations. Vocational education has been devalued. And the United States now suffers the highest rate of children living in single-parent households in the entire world — a crisis that drives more social, academic, and economic disparity than any other single factor.

Worst of all, Western Civilization itself—the source of individual rights, the rule of law, and the scientific method—is under relentless cultural attack from within our own institutions.

This cannot continue.

The Way Forward

To restore America to its foundational strength, we must take decisive action.

We must re-affirm the teachings of the Founding Fathers and the founding documents—the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights—and recover their clear Judeo-Christian orientation regarding human dignity, limited government, and ordered liberty.

We must require every student to pass the U.S. citizenship test at three critical junctures: the transition from elementary to middle school, from middle school to high school, and as a condition of high school graduation. Civics ignorance is a national security issue.

We must purge woke indoctrination from public school curricula, restore robust vocational education in our high schools, and implement school choice nationwide so parents—not bureaucrats—decide what is best for their children.

And we must change state and federal policy to financially incentivize marriage and stable two-parent families instead of subsidizing fatherless households. The data could not be clearer: the collapse of the family is the greatest threat to opportunity and social mobility in America today.

This July 4th, as we celebrate 250 years of American independence, we do not gather in despair. We gather in resolve. The same principles that summoned ordinary farmers and merchants to defy an empire still live in the hearts of millions of Americans. The same God who blessed our founding can bless our renewal—if we humble ourselves, remember who we truly are, and act with courage.

The American story is not over. Its greatest chapters can still be written. But only if we choose, right now, to defend the inheritance we received and to pass it on, stronger and more faithful, to the generations that follow.

Happy 250th Birthday, America. Let us make the next 250 years even greater.

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Kendall Qualls is an Army Veteran, retired executive from the healthcare industry and candidate for Governor of Minnesota. He also serves on the Board of Trustees at Crown College and Board of Advisors for the National Medal of Honor Leadership Center. He is the founder of Take Charge, which promotes strong families, education, and free enterprise as the means to prosperity.

Mr. Qualls has authored a book, The Prodigal Project: Hope for American Families. His message has reached millions of people as a speaker and through his articles published in the New York Post, Washington Examiner, The Washington Times, The Federalist, Real Clear Politics, The Christian Post, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. His previous articles in the Journal of FBT include “The Scandal Hidden in Plain Sight,” “Resurrect the Family,” “A Movement for Revival and Restoration,” “Amazing Grace,” “The Cincinnati Beat-Down,” “Charlie Kirk’s Message Transcended Ethnic and Political Boundaries,” “We Must Return to the Classical Black American Tradition,” “Black Americans Are Not Hyphenated Citizens,” and “A Generation Lost...That Can Still Be Found.” He has appeared on the FBT Podcast with host Connie Morgan in an episode titled “Bucking the Narrative.”