A quarter of a millennium has passed since the Founders declared our independence and established a nation based on radical ideas—which they deemed “self-evident”—regarding individual equality, consent of the governed, and rule of law tempered by “inalienable rights.” We have spent those years defining and redefining what America is and who Americans are. It has never been a clean or simple dialogue: Consensus is often fleeting, with answers’ clarity often varying according to the eyes of their