Freedom was the point. But what kind of nation is the United States becoming?

This year, that question feels more urgent than ever.

Trump is challenging constitutional checks and balances

Just days ago, the United States Supreme Court further eroded federal judicial power over the executive in a stunning ruling that danced around birthright citizenship. The President of the University of Virginia resigned under pressure from the Trump administration for allegedly not getting rid of the school’s DEI policies. And all of this came after several intense weeks, were Americans witnessed mass protests under the “No Kings” banner. We’ve mourned the murder of a beloved Minnesota state senator and her husband, victims of a vigilante with a hit list of Democratic lawmakers.

Credit: handout

Credit: handout

We’ve seen reports of masked men posing as ICE agents, sweeping up immigrants — and, in some cases, American citizens — into detention.

And now, we are learning that President Donald Trump ordered a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities without prior notification to Congress, as required by the War Powers Act.

According to conflicting news sources as well as the president himself, it appears that only a few Republican members of Congress were briefed before the attack on Iran, with some Democratic members only being briefed by official letter notice, after the fact.

The “gang of 8” is a bipartisan group of chairmen and ranking members of the Intelligence committees, as well as the speaker of the House and the majority and minority leaders of both chambers. Also, a congressional briefing was abruptly canceled by the White House on June 23 with no explanation given.

This is not just a break with protocol. It’s a direct challenge to constitutional checks and balances.

Freedom is fragile despite the Founding Fathers’ vision

Credit: Jenni Girtman

Credit: Jenni Girtman

This is not the America the founders envisioned.

Our nation was born in resistance to tyranny. When 56 men signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, they pledged their lives to the radical belief that liberty is a birthright, not a favor bestowed by kings.

Those words — “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” — were imperfect in practice but powerful in principle. They declared that freedom belonged to all of us.

But freedom, as it turns out, is fragile. And when we trade it away for the illusion of safety — or, worse, the satisfaction of punishing our ideological enemies — we all lose.

That’s what I fear we are becoming: a nation where freedom is conditional. Where dissent is punished. Where government power is used not to serve the people but to intimidate and bypass them.

I have spent my life working in and around government — as a congressional staffer, as a constitutional lawyer and now as a journalist and author. I believe deeply in the promise of America. But I cannot ignore what we are witnessing in 2025.

This most recent military action — taken without bipartisan congressional oversight — was not just reckless in foreign policy terms. It was reckless in constitutional terms. The president of the United States does not rule alone. Not in a republic. Not in a democracy. And certainly not in the nation that once declared, “We hold these truths to be self-evident.”

Are we citizens willing to accept an erosion of liberty?

Credit: John Spink

Credit: John Spink

In this second Trump term, we are watching freedom shrink, not expand. Books are being banned. Academic freedom is under attack. Whistleblowers are punished.

Immigrants — who have always been a cornerstone of this nation’s success — are vilified and hunted. And now, war powers are wielded unilaterally.

We forget that many of the Founders and their children were immigrants. They were dissenters and dreamers. They didn’t build a country on fear — they built it on faith. In liberty. In law. In the idea that we, the people, could govern ourselves.

So again I ask: What kind of nation are we becoming?

One where your citizenship is questioned because of your accent or the color of your skin?

One where the government controls what you can teach, say or read?

One where Congress is sidelined in decisions of war?

Next year, America will celebrate its 250th birthday. It should be a time of reflection and renewal — a chance to recommit to the values that bind us. But we cannot do that while sleepwalking into authoritarianism, cheering it on because it punishes “the other side.”

Authoritarianism doesn’t announce itself with boots and rifles. It creeps in quietly — on executive orders, in silent raids, in late-night bombings and in the silencing of voices.

So as we celebrate Independence Day, let us do more than wave flags and light fireworks. Let us ask — and answer — this question with courage:

What kind of nation are we becoming?

And will we have the courage to become better before it’s too late?