This week, Americans will gather with family and friends to celebrate our independence. These celebrations will play out against the backdrop of recent instability at home and war abroad. There is an uneasiness in our land, accompanied by a sharp ideological and partisan divide, a torn social fabric, widespread government dysfunction and mounting national debt. Many wonder if our best days are behind us.

The reality is for all of our challenges and political differences, Americans still have so much going for us and more in common than what divides us. What we need now is some historical perspective and the recovering of our founding principles and spirit.

To begin with, despite our imperfections, the U.S. is still a great and good country. We displayed that when we helped save the world from another dark age, defeating fascism during World War II. Immediately after, we spent over 5 percent of our nation’s wealth to rebuild the very same countries we had just vanquished on the battlefield. The generous Marshall Plan not only revitalized Germany and Japan, it helped usher in a period of relative peace and prosperity the world had never known before. This “enlightened self-interest” also elevated America to global superpower status and created our middle class.

Today, for all of our challenges, to be born American is to win the lottery of life. That’s why we continue to see so many people from every corner of the world fight so hard to get here. On July 4, we should........

© The Hill