As America’s democracy turns 250, there are moments to celebrate. The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision preserving birthright citizenship reaffirmed one of our nation’s defining promises: that America belongs not to some of us, but to all of us.

But anniversaries are also moments for honesty.

We celebrate this milestone amid escalating attacks on immigrant communities, crackdowns on protesters and other dissenters, attacks on LGBTQ+ Americans, renewed efforts to undermine confidence in our elections, the dismantling of long-standing federal institutions, and an alarming concentration of power in the executive branch. These are not isolated events. They remind us that democracy is neither inevitable nor self-sustaining.

Our Founders did something extraordinary. They rejected monarchy and declared that government should derive its legitimacy from the people. Yet they also knew their work was unfinished. Just 13 years after independence, they replaced the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution and created a process for amendment because they understood that democracy must evolve with the nation it serves.

Related: What Minnesota taught a Buddhist-Catholic immigrant about America at 250

For 250 years, Americans have continued that work. Women won the right to vote. Black Americans endured slavery, Jim Crow, and generations of voter suppression before securing the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. Native Americans fought for decades after gaining citizenship to secure meaningful access to the ballot. LGBTQ+ Americans won the freedom to marry. Every generation has expanded the promise of American democracy.

But progress has never been inevitable. It has always required courage.

Today, many of those hard-won gains are under renewed pressure. Key protections of the Voting Rights Act have been gutted. Attacks on ballot access continue as we approach the 2026 elections. At the same time, our winner-take-all political system too often fails to translate the will of the people into government. Gerrymandering, minority rule, spoiler elections and the outsized influence of money have produced institutions that are increasingly unresponsive to what most Americans actually want. Rather than broadening representation as our nation has grown more diverse, our politics has hardened into a polarized two-party system that rewards division instead of problem-solving.

Defending democracy today means more than preserving the institutions we inherited. It means building institutions that faithfully reflect the will of the people, broaden representation, respond to the needs of Americans and withstand those who seek to concentrate power rather than share it.

As we begin America’s next 250 years, we should be bold enough to imagine a stronger democracy: restoring and expanding the protections of the Voting Rights Act, protecting every eligible citizen’s freedom to vote, embracing ranked-choice voting so voters have more choice and winners earn broader support, adopting proportional representation so legislatures better reflect the people they serve, establishing independent redistricting commissions, reducing the influence of money in politics, expanding the U.S. House, adopting the National Popular Vote and reforming the Supreme Court to restore public confidence.

These ideas are ambitious.

So was declaring independence from a king.

So was extending the vote to women.

So was insisting that democracy belong equally to Black Americans.

So was demanding equal rights for LGBTQ+ Americans.

Every generation has been asked whether it is willing to do the work democracy requires.

Today’s younger voters understand this. They inherited institutions marked by polarization, declining trust and dysfunction. They are not rejecting democracy — they are demanding one that works.

The question before us is not whether American democracy will change. It always has. The question is whether we will have the courage to shape that change for the better.

The founders were bold enough to reject a king.

The suffragists were bold enough to demand equality.

The civil rights movement was bold enough to insist that every American deserves a voice.

The LGBTQ+ movement was bold enough to win the right to marry whoever they loved..

Now it is our turn.

The next 250 years should be defined by a democracy that is more representative, more inclusive, and more resilient than the one we inherited — a multiracial democracy where every eligible voter can participate freely, every vote counts equally, every voice is heard, and every institution is accountable and responsive to the people, not the powerful.

The American experiment has always belonged to We the People when we have been bold enough to claim it.

It’s time to be bold again.

Jeanne Massey is executive director of Fairvote MN and lives in Minneapolis.

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