We’re celebrating America’s 250th anniversary by taking on some of the biggest questions surrounding the nation’s founding. Few are more enduring, or more debatable, than whether we should continue to revere the Founders or take a more critical view of their legacy. Benjamin Franklin himself admitted that the new Constitution was not perfect, and he asked his colleagues to approach the finished document with humility.
Americans remain deeply connected to the country’s origins: a Cato Institute poll reported that 70% of Americans believe its founding principles remain relevant today and a recent Gallup poll says the United States has succeeded at least “a fair amount” in living up to its founding ideals. Yet in that same poll, 77% of Americans believe the Founders would be disappointed with the state of the country today, as public opinion is far more divided over the Founders themselves.
As our debaters go over in this episode, should figures like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin still be celebrated as national heroes—or is it time to stop putting them on a pedestal? Watch the debate now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube and as always, let us know what you think.
ARGUING YES:
Osita Nwanevu, Contributing Editor at The New Republic; Columnist at The Guardian
“We should leave behind our culture of Founder veneration and worship. Here, 250 years into our history, in a country that Founders wouldn't recognize, facing problems the Founders could not have imagined, and bearing aspirations and ideals that I don't think the Founders shared, I don't believe that the intentions of the Founders should continue to bind us. We should be less interested in what the Founders had as expectations for us than whether our institutions and our country measure up to our expectations here and now.”
ARGUING NO:
Helena Rosenblatt, Distinguished Professor of History, French, and Political Science, and the MA Program in Liberal Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center
“I admire the Founding Fathers for their courage, for believing that a republic is possible in a large state. This was not believed at the time. People thought that America would fail, that republics were not possible... They gave us language that still resonates: natural rights and equality. They gave us the beautiful words, 'We the People [of the United States], in order to form a more perfect Union.’ We — not a king, not God, but we, a perfect union, and that's beautiful as well. I think that can continue to inspire us.”
As America marks its 250th anniversary, the Founders remain some of the nation's most admired — and debated — figures. Their vision shaped the republic, but their legacies continue to spark disagreement over which of their ideas, achievements, and flaws deserve the most attention.
Two Sides to Every Story: How Do America’s Founding Principles Hold Up?
Questions about the nation's founding ideals have moved well beyond the history books. What did the Founders actually envision for the republic they created? Have their principles endured through two and a half centuries of political, social, and cultural change, or have they been fundamentally reinterpreted by each new generation, for better or worse?
These two thought-provoking essays offer competing visions of the American experiment and what it means to uphold the legacy of 1776 in 2026:
1776 vs. 2026 by Cal Thomas
vs.
Which side do you agree with? Let us know your thoughts.
The Constitutional Questions Still Open to Debate
The Constitution remains at the center of many of today's biggest debates — and ones in our future. Continue exploring questions about America's founding principles with our debates on originalism, what it takes to interpret the Constitution in the Supreme Court, and other constitutional issues shaping the country now.
Should SCOTUS Focus on the Original Meaning of the Constitution?
Think Twice: Reading the Constitution with Justice Stephen Breyer
Should the U.S. Call a Convention to Amend the Constitution?
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Its hard to answer if we should change how we teach about the founders you provide no context for how its being taught now. If one were judging from how kids are turning out and the media, we currently denigrate the founders, focus on their flaws, ignore anything good they did, and crap all over the country that was built while claiming others 'actually' built it. So if thats what we are currently teaching, then yes it should change.
If we are teaching about them the way we traditionally do, they we are doing a very poor good and it should also change. But unless you provide details on HOW it would or should change, the question is a bit meaningless.
Sure, many of the Founders were slave owners, smugglers and ambitious for honors and high office. They became desperate for independence and liberty only after the Seven Year War ended the need for the Red-Coats to guard against the French and Indian danger from Canada. George’s governance of the 13 Colonies, in the overall, was gentle and benign. Trump could never have written a document as elegant and inspiring as the Declaration of Independence, but its lies and exaggerates were certainly in his league. Canada, never broke from England. Its Founders never produced rhetoric as courageous and high minded as ours. Still, somehow it managed to become as free and independent a Republic as ours and as honest a democracy.
Still, pride in our Constitution and Founding Fathers seems to me far preferable to the cynical and bitter contempt that has become fashionable.