About 20 years ago my late friend, Walter “Chick” Bishop, an Army veteran and retired history teacher, told me that no civilization has lasted longer than 250 years.
Here we are in the United States at 250 years and I will examine a statement of a Founding Father that may surface this week. Benjamin Franklin, after the Constitutional Convention of 1787, was asked about the form of this new government. His reply was “A Republic, if you can keep it.” As we celebrate 250 years, it does seem to be slipping away, in my opinion.
As we look at others deeply involved in the formation of the greatest nation for human liberty ever established, I find this exchange from John Adams to be very insightful for the blend of history and future freedom.
Adams wrote the following in a letter to John Taylor in 1814:
You Say I “might have exhibited millions of Plebians, sacrificed to the pride Folly and Ambition of Monarchy and Aristocracy.” This is very true. And I might have exhibited as many millions of Plebians sacrificed by the Pride Folly and Ambition of their fellow Plebians and their own, in proportion to the extent and duration of their power. Remember Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a Democracy Yet, that did not commit suicide.
Right off, I had to look up the meaning of Plebians which are commoners. If I accomplish nothing else in this lifetime, being a champion for the Plebians would be enough for me. The everyday “working” people of this nation don’t really engage; they simply want to go about doing their part to make the nation function at the grassroots level. They don’t want to engage in anything outside of their work and family. These people have made America the best example of what a government embracing individual liberty can be like.
At the same time, these are the people who are allowing the representative republic to slowly slip away. There are those of us who attempt to be on the front lines identifying what Franklin was talking about when he said, “if you can keep it.” That statement has a concept of the requirement of a dutiful citizen. As another friend tells me often, “It has taken blood, sweat and tears to preserve from the creator your personal liberty. If you do not choose to use your rights, you will lose them.”
As we all gather this week to celebrate 250 years of freedom, one must question how that freedom is working today compared to 1976, which I clearly remember eating pork chops with my family on Independence Day. If you think America is getting a passing grade in that respect, we see the world through different glasses.
What I will be celebrating on Independence Day 2026 is the sacrifice that millions of families have made since 1776 to enable our opportunity to “keep it.” It is very clear to me that those Americans have openly displayed their “love of country” and fought to keep it for all of us.
In closing, I am going to use my own father’s knowledge of animal husbandry as the perfect example. He stressed day after day that if you see an animal that is starting to look a little off and you treat it immediately, it is much easier than if you wait a day and are then behind the 8-ball. My Independence Day wish for my fellow Americans is that we “Don’t wait until we are behind the 8-ball.”
Happy Independence Day America and may God grant us a continued flourishing of our great nation.
Editor’s note: The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not represent the view of High Plains Journal. Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of agriculture. Get more information at www.LoosTales.com or email Trent at [email protected].
PHOTO: U.S. flags (Michelle Ross – Meade, Kansas.)
