On July 4, 2026, the United States marked 250 years since 56 men in Philadelphia signed their names to a single sheet of parchment and declared something the world had never seen before: that government derives its legitimacy not from kings or conquest, but from the consent of the governed.
That idea was, at the time, a radical experiment. Today, a quarter of a millennium later, it remains one, tested, imperfect, and still very much alive.
