America is not in a party mood.

Even as the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence โˆ’ a celebration of the founding of the world's oldest modern constitutional democracy โˆ’ most Americans are mired in dissatisfaction with the nation's present and pessimism about its future.

By double digits in recent polls, they predict the country's best years are behind us, with more peril than promise ahead.

Despite a few glimmers of good feeling, today's fierce political divisions have redefined a milestone that has often been marked by unity and optimism, at least for a moment. A cover of The New Yorker by Barry Bliss portrayed a dyspeptic George Washington, doused by confetti and holding a martini. The caption: "Red, White, and Kinda Blue."

A half-dozen recent national surveys โˆ’ by the Pew Research Center and Gallup, NBC News and Fox News, Elon University and Emerson College โˆ’ have posed different questions but consistently shown an anxious nation nervously eyeing what will follow.

That's not entirely new. In the past, the big anniversaries of the Declaration of Independence have been marked not only by celebration but also by protest and unease.

In 1876, at the centennial, the United States was still recovering from a devastating civil war. At the official celebration at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, suffragist Susan B. Anthony marched onstage, uninvited, to present demands for women's rights to the gathered dignitaries.

In 1976, the bicentennial followed the traumas of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal that had forced President Richard Nixon's resignation. Leading the celebration was his successor, Gerald Ford, the only president who had never been elected to national office as president or vice president.

"Many generations of Americans always took the founding as an opportunity to agitate for more rights," said Carol Faulkner, a historian at Syracuse University who has studied the commemorations. "This might be a time of thinking about liberty, equality, the pursuit of happiness."

But in some ways this time is different, she said. "It's much more partisan. It's really much more about a divisive president than the 1876 or the 1976 commemorations."

Today's mood is more downbeat, too.

During the bicentennial in 1976, 43% of those surveyed by Roper felt optimistic about the future of the country, compared with 15% who were pessimistic โˆ’ the positive outnumbering the negative by 28 percentage points. Thirty-nine percent were uncertain.

Now, in an Emerson College poll that asked the same question, pessimism had jumped 26 points, to 41%, while optimism had ticked down to 42% โˆ’ overall, a positive edge of a single point. Eighteen percent were uncertain.

What would the founders think?

Seven in 10 Americans (69%) said in an Elon University Poll that they believed the signers of the Declaration of Independence would feel more disappointment than pride about modern American democracy.

The semiquincentennial comes after two tumultuous decades that have upended the nation's politics and left many Americans feeling battered.

The financial system melted down in 2008 and the global COVID-19 pandemic erupted in 2020. The divisive Iraq War ended in 2011 and the long Afghanistan war 10 years later with a chaotic withdrawal. Since his first election in 2016, President Donald Trump has reshaped a more populist Republican Party with a harder edge. And democratic socialists like New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have become more important forces in the Democratic Party.

Now Democratic opponents accuse Trump of making events marking America at 250 โˆ’ from the UFC cage match June 14 on the White House South Lawn to The Great American State Fair on the National Mall โˆ’ more about celebrating him than the country.

The signature events in Washington, DC, on July Fourth, including a supersized fireworks display, will be "the most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all," Trump boasted on Truth Social.

Though Congress created a bipartisan commission called America250 to coordinate anniversary celebrations, Trump has created a separate group called Freedom 250 that has taken the lead on the biggest ones.

Concerns about his takeover of traditionally nonpolitical celebrations have led some states to decline participating in Washington events and some entertainers to cancel plans to perform at them.

Even some more community-based plans have taken on a partisan ting. In a Gallup Poll taken in collaboration with America250 and the group With Honor, nearly 9 of 10 Republicans (88%) said they planned to mark the anniversary in some way, compared with 54% of Democrats.

There are divisions by age, too.

Among seniors, those 65 and older, 84% planned to celebrate. Among younger adults, those 18 to 39, 54% did.

On most measures, young people are more pessimistic than their elders about the future of the country and the resilience of the American dream, the aspiration that has fueled generations of Americans.

Younger adults in the Pew poll were more likely to predict that by the year 2050 the country would be more politically divided, less economically prosperous and a more dangerous place to live.

Among voters under 30, 3 in 10 said in a Fox News poll that they would rather be living in some other country.

Some analysts fear that the friction over the 250th celebrations, especially the national ones, may end up reinforcing the nation's bitter divide rather than providing a respite from it.

Still, almost everyone surveyed by Gallup cited something that made them most proud to be an American, topped by "the freedoms we have" (35%) and "the diversity of our people" (28%). Just 4% said they weren't proud of anything.

Nearly 9 in 10 named something that made them optimistic about the future, starting with 26% who cited "people willing to stand up for what they believe is right." But 12% couldn't think of anything that made them optimistic.

Feelings are mixed and sometimes conflicting.

Thinking about the future, 68% told Pew they were hopeful, while 60% said they felt scared; 54% felt happy and 50% felt sad.

An overwhelming 85% told Fox it was important to emphasize national unity and shared values.

On the other hand, they also expressed little confidence that shared values still prevailed. By 58% to 42%, those surveyed said Americans were mostly separated by different values, not bound by shared ones.

Happy 250th, America.

Susan Page, Washington Bureau chief of USA TODAY, has covered 12 presidential elections and seven presidents. Her latest book is "The Queen and Her Presidents" (Harper, 2026).

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: At 250, America is in a mood. Why some aren't looking to celebrate