July 4, 2026
There was once a time when the United States of America was new. In 1796, when George Washington published what is now called his farewell address, 1776 was only 20 years prior, and the Constitution had only been in effect since 1789.
Things that started before we were born often feel as though they are the way the world has always been. By the start of the U.S. Civil War, a man born in 1789 would be 72, having lived a full lifetime under the Constitution; that is about how long the Soviet Union lasted.
Succession is a tricky business:
Was the system the work of one man, tied together by his unique genius, or can it support itself?
Will successors agree to maintain the process of succession, or attempt to stop it?
Can the system of succession carry its own weight without any of its original architects?
250 years is a long time. America made it past the first few successions, and then it made it past the first lifetime, and then it made it past a second lifetime, and now a third. It pre-existed the Soviet Union, and then continued on after it.
Cheers, America. May there be 250 more.