America is an immensely dynamic country that has excelled thanks in part to its ability to change. At its inception, the idea that a state could nullify Federal laws was unassailable, the ruling class was dominated by agrarian aristocrats, and Abolitionism was a minority cause.

Over more than two centuries, the fabric of America, the meaning of what even is American, has constantly shifted. From the Era of Good Feelings, to the Antebellum, to Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, Industrialization, Lost Generation, Greatest Generation, World Wars, Cold War, War on Terror, through and beyond the fabled “End of History,” America continues to develop and mature. With each era, new lessons are learned, maxims are questioned, and new ideas posited.

Over the next century, the United States is one of the few places in the world without the threat of drought, famine, disease, war, political violence, or demographic collapse. It is nearly a given that America will win the next century. Knowing that the country’s fate is secure, the question that should be asked is not if we will win, but how we should conduct ourselves once we win.