found online by Raymond
From Jonathan Bernstein:
July 4th should be a celebration of the one thing that really makes the United States of America an exceptional nation. That’s politics.
The United States began as an experiment in politics, with a founding document declaring us dedicated (as Lincoln said) not to a patch of land, a religion, an ethnicity, or a culture, but to a proposition: that “all men are created equal.” The revolution was completed by a constitution which institutionalized politics, including participation by ordinary citizens. It’s not an exaggeration to say that for the framers, the ability to take part in politics was the whole point of establishing the nation.