We’re still not the paragon of virtue we’d like to pretend. If we’re to align with what Theo is saying here, we should accept that we’re just another country of many, and not some divine example to be emulated. I’d prefer we operate as we pretend ourselves to be; embody the Christian mythology and take in our neighbors, do unto them as we’d have them do unto us, and fight for this great experiment to hold true. Our forefathers didn’t intend for us to join the ranks of existing nations, they instead wanted us to become the usurpers of Nations as concept; to do away with the idea that anyone should be subjugated in order for others to rise. It’s one thing to read the documents and turn to rhetoric as a means of justifying your thesis; it’s another to take the source material and further its arguments in the modern age. We can and should, be better than what came before us. Not simply quote religious texts and founding principles for a means of justification. Yeah, it’s difficult, yeah it means we don’t have all the shiny new things others do. Better that we exemplify humanity and add to a perennial philosophy than to repeat the mistakes of our past persecutors. The war of a better humanity is endless; the war for a better Nation is always temporary.