Tomorrow, America will celebrate 250 years of independence. That sounds like a long time, to Americans at least. It is a laughably short period to those who live in places with much longer histories, however. Travel around Europe or other foreign lands and you will see ruins and remains that sometimes date in the thousands of years. So while a quarter-millennium is impressive to us, to people who live near (for instance) Roman aqueducts that date to the time of Christ aren't quite as impressed.

Nevertheless, 250 years of one form of government that has endured throughout (well, except for the Articles of Confederation period, which is always conveniently forgotten) is something definitely worth celebrating. The question many are asking at this moment in time is how much longer the same form of government will endure in the future -- will the United States of America still be recognizable in another 100 years? Or 50? Or even five years?

This would not have been such a worrisome question before the arrival of Donald Trump on the political scene. Americans in 2014 wouldn't have worried much about the survival of our republic as some of us do now, to state the obvious.

The country is in the midst of learning a sobering lesson about history. Most of us grew up with a concept of American history that was presented to us when we were in school. It is a tale of always striving for a "more perfect union," where the country started off with rather lofty ideals that were (sometimes seriously) flawed in their implementation. But then we got better, over time, and the whole of American history is a story of always struggling upward, getting better and better, always reaching out to make the union "more perfect."

This is not a completely accurate picture, but most of you will recognize it because it is what you were taught in school. In reality, however, America has charted its course through history with plenty of ups and downs. It has not been one gradual continuous climb eternally upwards. On occasion, we get markedly worse, not better. We go through periods where poisonous ideas take hold and our government reacts by making our union a whole lot less perfect. Then, eventually, there is enough pushback that the government begins to chart a new course, and things improve. But it is not a constant upward movement -- we go downwards far too often.

In my humble opinion (which matches that of millions of other Americans) we are in one of those downward movements now. And things have gotten so frightening that there isn't even a guarantee that future elections will be held in a free and fair manner. What will happen if Democrats sweep the midterms? Will Trump and his Republicans just quietly allow the shift of power people voted for to happen? Or will they try to somehow change the result after the fact? Will newly-elected members of Congress be seated? Or will the GOP try to cling to power and refuse to accept the results? Trump has already proven what an incredibly sore loser he can be, and the Republicans in Congress have proven so spineless in standing up to his Big Lie about election results that this isn't a hypothetical worry in any way. It's not even guaranteed that Election Day itself will go peacefully -- Trump might just declare a "national emergency" and try to take over the counting of ballots. None of these things would have been legitimate worries back in 2014, but they are now. And what will happen in the 2028 election? Hopefully all these fears will prove to be ungrounded, but it's a sad commentary that such worries even exist, at this point. Which is why when I asked the question about where America will be in 50 or 100 years I had to include: "Where will we be in five years?" Will we still live in a land that prides itself on free and fair elections and a peaceful transfer of power, or will all that have already gone away?

About the only thing you can say is that America will probably endure, at this point. We've been through worse, after all. Donald Trump won't be around forever, although "Trumpism" might last longer than he does. The Republican Party might transform itself (post-Trump) into something a lot less cruel and spiteful. Then again, they could go through a period where everyone tries to "out-Trump Trump" just as easily. The Pandora's box of nastiness that Trump threw open might not be closed for a while. Another narcissist might take his place with an even nastier agenda -- and they might prove to be a whole lot more competent at implementing it.

These are dark thoughts for what is supposed to be a nationwide time of celebration, I realize. But as I see it, we are in a very dark period of American history as we reach the 250-year mark. So many norms of politics and governance have been tossed out in the past decade that it is impossible to see right now which can be reinstated -- either by politicians less self-serving or by legislation passed to prevent such excesses in the future.

I want to believe that the American form of government will endure and be strengthened for the future. After all, the alternative is pretty frightening to contemplate. Nobody has any clue whether it'll last for another 250 years or not -- and nobody alive today will be around to see it. I have to personally remain optimistic that we can pull through the next five or ten years intact, mostly because we've always muddled through somehow in the past. We will be a changed country, that much seems almost guaranteed, but hopefully our core ideals will indeed endure through such changes.

So I will celebrate our first quarter-millennium tomorrow with everyone else, with a sense of cautious optimism. It's not how I expected to feel upon reaching this milestone, but at this point it'll have to do. I would encourage everyone to have a happy Independence Day, but if you can't manage that, perhaps at least a hopeful one. We've weathered worse storms, so hopefully we'll get through this one too and start counting upwards towards our tricentennial.

[Program Note: The regular Friday Talking Points column is going to be a bit sporadic for the rest of this month. I will be taking a short vacation, and possibly a few other days off here and there. I also would like to apologize for the grim nature of this column, but my family is in the midst of a pet's medical emergency, so I'm not in the cheeriest of moods right now. In any case, just wanted to warn people in advance that things may be a little intermittent here for the rest of July.]

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant