Today, most Americans are too cynical, or tired, or both, to even approximate our Founders' courageous repudiation of injustice.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I don't subscribe to the idea that the founders or anyone else were somehow better than us and that we have to live up to their example.
American political elites feel very empowered to criticize the American intelligence community for not doing enough when they feel in danger, and as soon as we've made them feel safe again, they feel equally empowered to complain that we're doing too much.
American politicians who dwell on American exceptionalism only dishonor us by suggesting we play dumb to our past.
Our national history has so often filled us with bitterness and the feeling of helplessness.
The American people want to pay attention to serious ideas again. Our founding was built by people who were political philosophers, and we need to get back to that, away from this kind of cheap political rhetoric of Right and Left.
It is ironic that the United States should have been founded by intellectuals, for throughout most of our political history, the intellectual has been for the most part either an outsider, a servant or a scapegoat.
There is nothing in the genius of America more precious today than the spirit of religious and political tolerance in its application to our own people.
Beyond any question, the way the American founders consistently linked faith and freedom, republicanism and religion, was not only deliberate and thoughtful, it was also surprising and anything but routine.
Today, our actions must be motivated only by our intense desire to achieve a just and lasting peace. The compassion and charity of the American people should be reflected in this legislation, though sadly, they are silenced.
Americans are less selfish than some of our politicians believe and will respond with reason and resilience to passionate clarity.