Flawed republic, grand vision

The United States - champion of liberal democracy, cradle of individual freedom and standard-bearer of civil liberties - is marking its 250th birthday.

- By SANTHOSH MATHEW

"Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press," reads the First Amendment words etched into the American conscience and echoed in every town square, newspaper column, and courtroom debate. This uncompromising commitment to media freedom, civil discourse, and dissent remains one of the greatest hallmarks of the American experiment. From its inception, America chose the daring path of self-rule.

The Declaration of Independence was a lightning strike of political imagination. The Constitution that followed laid out a bold system of checks and balances. The Bill of Rights guaranteed individual freedoms including speech, religion, and the press well before such rights became standard across the world. Abraham Lincoln's defense of "government of the people, by the people, for the people" during the Civil War reaffirmed the experiment's endurance. But it wasn't mere parchment and prose that built the nation it was struggle. Civil rights movements, labour uprisings, suffrage campaigns, and antiwar protests have tested and enriched the American conscience.

From Rosa Parks in Montgomery to the marchers in Selma, from Stonewall to Standing Rock, dissent has been not only permitted, but essential to the nation's evolution. Throughout the 19th century, America walked a tightrope between engagement and withdrawal in world affairs. The Monroe Doctrine of 1823 asserted that the Western Hemisphere was off-limits to European colonization, establishing a cornerstone of American foreign policy. It was a clear declaration of hemispheric influence cloaked in the language of protectionism. While ostensibly a shield against imperial intrusion, it laid the foundation for future interventions in Latin America under the guise of defending democracy an early sign of how American exceptionalism would evolve into American dominion. The 20th century saw America rise as a global power.