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.

- SANTHOSH MATHEW

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