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Today, most Americans are too cynical, or tired, or both, to even approximate our Founders' courageous repudiation of injustice.

Americans are less selfish than some of our politicians believe and will respond with reason and resilience to passionate clarity.

Americans have always had an ambivalent attitude toward intelligence. When they feel threatened, they want a lot of it, and when they don't, they regard the whole thing as somewhat immoral.

We've got to dumb America up again.

You often see in Washington those who disagree you described as stupid or evil. It's one of the most unfortunate trends of modern political discourse. Portraying opponents as too dumb to know the truth but smart enough and wanting people to suffer.

The notion of American exceptionalism is effective in part because there is little on the face of it that is offensive.

Americans are good people, and at times we can be wise. But we're often under-informed by media, misinformed by our government and ill-served by both.

American exceptionalism is grounded in the founding of the United States upon an idea, rather than upon the ambitions of men.