1776 Against 1787: Constituent Power and the Forgotten

1776 Against 1787: Constituent power and the forgotten

On Saturday, July 4, Americans celebrated the nation’s 250th anniversary with the familiar fanfare: fireworks, flags, patriotic speeches, and ritual invocations of liberty. Yet at this extraordinary milestone, when the country is more deeply divided than at any time in recent memory over the meaning of democracy itself, it is worth asking what, precisely, we are celebrating. The obvious answer is that we celebrate the birth of the United States.…

1776 Against 1787: Constituent Power and the Forgotten Meaning of American Democracy

By Sam Ben-Meir* NEW YORK | 6 July 2026 (IDN) — On Saturday, July 4, Americans celebrated the nation’s 250th anniversary with the familiar fanfare: fireworks, flags, patriotic speeches, and ritual invocations of liberty. Yet at this extraordinary milestone, when the country is more deeply divided than at any time in recent memory over the meaning of democracy itself, it is worth asking what, precisely, we are celebrating. The obvious answer is t…