America's greatest strength is its ability to change

Near the end of his presidency, George Washington worried deeply about the young republic's survival. In his 1796 Farewell Address, he warned that political parties, led by "ambitious and unprincipled men," could subvert the power of the people and usurp the reins of government.

It is unlikely Washington would have bet on a 250th anniversary. Yet the American Constitution, with its resilient system of checks and balances and its capacity for amendment, has readily handled hyperpartisan politics.

But there was a deep flaw in this new nation. It was a glaring and undeniable contradiction penned by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal."

This did not apply to enslaved Black Americans or the displaced Native Americans. Slaveholders like Jefferson and Washington could not conceive of an economy without plantations.

The decades that followed were perilous, marked by economic turmoil, regional rivalries and the devastating 1830 Indian Removal Act. Yet the story of the United States is not limited to failures; it is mostly in our persistent effort to change course.

I learned the value of this American capacity for self-correction from my grandfather, Friedrich Kellner. As a justice inspector in Nazi Germany, he risked his life to secretly record Nazi atrocities in a 10-volume diary. He watched the Weimar Republic collapse because it lacked the internal machinery to reform itself. To him, the American experiment was a beacon — not because it was perfect, but because it possessed a rare, systemic capacity to fight, argue and ultimately bend toward justice.

Determined not to let our Founders' flaws become our destiny, Americans fought a Civil War to end slavery and amended the Constitution to redefine citizenship. A century later, the Cold War pushed us to invest in science, education and global alliances — and forced us to make good on what we stood for. We dismantled Jim Crow and gave real meaning to Jefferson's words, proving democracy's greatest weapon is its internal capacity for reform.

Today, at our 250th anniversary, we face political polarization, disinformation and global instability. Many Americans feel alienated and wonder if the great machinery of renewal has broken down.

But we need only recall our accomplishments: freedom and voting rights for all, great universities and world-class cities. American English is the world's language. America itself is the world's preferred destination.

The personal accomplishments of individual Americans in science and art further explain why the United States of America is still here and can continue for hundreds of years more. We are the nation of Samuel Morse and Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison and the Wright brothers, Jonas Salk's polio vaccine and James Watson's map of DNA. The world revels in the music of Duke Ellington and Elvis Presley.

These diverse triumphs come from the same trait that keeps our democracy alive: the American's insatiable desire to tinker, improve and reinvent. We are a nation built to make things better.

If Washington could see us now, he would frown at our political divisions. But he, like my grandfather, would also recognize a striving people who still believe a more perfect union is possible.

We survived 250 years because at every critical crossroad we chose to fix the republic rather than abandon it. With our capacity for growth, the best days are still ahead and ours to build upon.

This guest essay reflects the views of Robert Scott Kellner, a Navy veteran, retired English professor who taught at the University of Massachusetts and Texas A&M University, and the editor and translator of "My Opposition: The Diary of Friedrich Kellner — A German against the Third Reich."