Why America Exists

Citizenship no longer demands a common experience—and so we no longer believe in a common future.

General Stanley McChrystal

As we celebrate America's 250th anniversary, I find myself reflecting on what it means to be an American; the common narratives that define us, the shared experiences, and especially the values, beliefs, and ideals that bind us together. What does it mean to be an American in 2026, and what did it mean to be an American in 1776?

McChrystal's quote offers a useful provocation: without a common experience, without a shared vision of an American future, can we even define what it means to be an American? A longtime advocate for mandatory national service, McChrystal frames the American identity around the common experience of service. He is not alone in that belief.

Barely two years into our fight for independence, George Washington and the Continental Army were in winter quarters at Valley Forge enduring one of the most desperate winters of the war. The army suffered from every shortage imaginable: food, clothing, military supplies, personnel and, near fatally, morale. Conditions were so bad that the Continental Congress formed and dispatched a committee to Valley Forge to inspect the state of the army and its leadership.

A prolific writer, Washington penned a lengthy report outlining his assessment of the situation and at the heart of his concerns was an examination of human character:

Motives of public virtue may for a time, or in particular instances, actuate men to the observance of a conduct purely disinterested; but they are not of themselves sufficient to produce a persevering conformity to the refined dictates and obligations of social duty. Few men are capable of making a continual sacrifice of all views of private interest, or advantage, to the common good.

George Washington, 29 January 1778

As Washington knew then and McChrystal would conclude over two hundred years later, a citizenry devoid of a mutually shared obligation would devolve into the pursuit of self-interest. A citizenry that is purely self-interested lack a meaningful sense of national identity. Without a sense of national identity, America - the idea of America - is imperiled.

In a way, this is the same dilemma all leaders face: what binds the team together and why do individuals commit to a shared cause? In 1778, Washington's answer was the existential threat posed by Britain, and the shared cause of liberty. And yet, even with so noble a cause as liberty or the creation of a free people, Washington's army nearly collapsed from a "disinclination to the service". The American Revolution nearly failed because of the human inclination to self-interest. That inclination still lives within each of us today, but unlike 1778, we do not share so weighty a cause as the fight for independence.

What, then, binds Americans together, and to what cause shall we commit?

The answer for our nation, as the answer for the teams you lead, is our shared values. Our values are both the start point from which all decisions are made, and the ideal upon which we orient and strive toward. And what are the shared American values? We only have to look at our founding documents to find them:

• Inherent human rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; rights that government is obligated to defend
• Equal standing before the law
• The people grant power to government by consent, and consent can be withdrawn
• Freedom to believe and express what and how each individual chooses
• Each citizen's person, home, and possessions are outside the reach of arbitrary government action
• Government cannot take life, liberty, or property without due process

These values define who we are meant to be, what our government exists to uphold, and what all citizens are called to defend. Our values give shape to an ideal that we strive towards and have fought and bled for these 250 years. America's values are both what is worth dying for and what is worth living for. Our values answer the one essential question that must come before all others: why does America exist?

We exist to carry the burden of striving towards humanity's greatest potential.

This is America's burden and our great cause, because no other country is up to the task. Our values were born by every Patriot, every Pamphleteer, every Abolitionist, and every Suffragist, by every Conscientious Objector, Sit-in Participant, and Freedom Rider, every Soldier, Sailor, Airman and every Marine and by every ballot cast from 1776 through to today.

It is who we are and who we were from our nation's founding. It is both our legacy and the inheritance we pass on to every generation of American. And while there are real and legitimate disagreements of how to bring these values into their most perfect realization, our values are also what bound us together for the past 250 years and will continue to for the next 250.