US’ 250th anniversary celebrations will put its decline on display

There is a long tradition of reading a nation’s character in the way it marks its own milestones. When the United States turned 150, Philadelphia raised an 80-foot-tall luminous replica of the Liberty Bell and hosted a six-month Sesquicentennial International Exposition.When it turned 200, a country shaken by Vietnam, Watergate and political assassinations nonetheless found in its bicentennial a moment of genuine collective catharsis: a million people on the National Mall, the Freedom Train crossing 48 states, tall ships sailing into New York Harbour – what contemporaries judged the emotional centrepiece of a nation not triumphant, but still capable of dignity.Next month, the United States turns 250. The centrepiece was to be the Great American State Fair, a World’s Fair-style celebration stretching from the Capitol to the Washington Monument. Within days of its concert line-up being announced, more than half the acts withdrew, saying they had been misled about the event’s political character.