Opinion: The American project is to turn our ideals into reality, together

July 4^th is our country’s most hallowed holiday. On this day in 1776, it is an indisputable fact that the Constitutional Congress ratified the Declaration of Independence. But in another way, July 4th celebrates an American myth – that the colonists were united in their opposition to British rule.

According to most historians, only about 1/5 of the population was actively treasonous against the crown. At the time, John Adams estimated that one-third of colonialists were in favor of independence, one-third were loyalists, and one-third were indifferent.

Over the centuries, the historical fact of revolutionary division has been washed away by the myth of unity in our collective consciousness. Today, as we are faced with record political polarization and neighbors seemingly cannot agree on the basic facts of an issue – be that abortion, affirmative action, or an individual president’s performance – this historical reminder should give us some hope for our future.

And looking around the world, we are not alone in the myth-fact divide. All societies around the world are built on myth. Myths rally people toward a unifying “truth” – often a truth more aspirational than empirical. In societies as far back as Ancient Egypt and as recent as Victorian England (or purportedly in current-day North Korea), people have believed the myth that the head of state was anointed by God or a Godly figure themselves.  

In America, our common myths include that we are a melting pot, that anyone can grow up to be President, and that we are a land of equal opportunity. These are ideals, even though the fact of too many people’s lived experience has not matched them. Still, these ideals represent greater truths that point toward our aspirations as a people.

And they are at risk. In the last few years, we have been going through an overdue reckoning about the unsavory parts of our history and present. These have affected our collective consciousness, the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves – and manifested in deepening culture wars.  

Consider, for example, how we might view the United States in 1865. That year we were among the last Western nations to outlaw slavery. We are rooted in this shame. And at that same time, by almost any objective measure (e.g. who could freely participate in elections or engage government institutions), we were also among the most economically and politically democratic countries in the world. We are also rooted in this promise.

Another way to say this: The United States has an incredibly repressive, racist, and misogynist history. At the same time, it is the least repressive, racist, and misogynist superpower in the history of the world.  

If we take this view — acknowledging and accepting both facts — we can actively seek to make right our historical tragedies and also take immense pride in being American.  

In 1831, the French scholar Alexis de Tocqueville traveled throughout the United States to understand and report back to Europe on the young democratic experiment taking place across the Atlantic. He wrote that America’s greatness is not in the fact that it is more enlightened than other countries, but in its unique ability to “repair its faults.”

This July 4^th, each of us can take small, tangible action to repair our faults — by varying our personal news sources on a weekly basis, by calling out when those from our own demographic or partisan group use divisive or hurtful language, or by simply inviting someone to our BBQ who has a different background and viewpoint.  We may just find what recent research tells us: we have more in common with those from the other side than we are often led to believe.

Our country has many obvious problems to tackle — inequality, inflation, polarization, etc. — but as bleak as today’s events appear, we have much to be proud of. Celebrating that progress is the kindling of hope that powers us forward toward forming the “more perfect union” called for in the preamble of our Constitution. 

So as we celebrate our founding this year, we owe it to those who came before us, to ourselves, and to our children to hold high our unifying ideals, however aspirational some of them may still seem, and keep working to turn them into reality, together.  

Dane Erickson, of Denver, is cross-sectoral executive and a lecturer at the Graduate School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado Denver.

Bazi Kanani, of Denver, is a former television news anchor and reporter in Denver, Nairobi, and Washington, D.C. She is currently a strategist and director at a Colorado-based firm focused on behavior change communications for social impact.