When he's right, he's right.

Very far right, in fact, but just the same, credit where it's due to Rep. Steve King (R-IA)...

"They can't help themselves; it's in their DNA. These people are Leftists," King said of Democrats. "They don't see this country the way that we do. Their idea of American Exceptionalism is yet to come."

I imagine he managed to vocally capitalize leftist when he said it, too, but he reveals an important truth, just the same. My idea, and I think most Democrats' idea, of American Exceptionalism is, and will always be, an idea of something "yet to come."

Democrats believe that if we pull together, we can continue to make progress toward that more perfect union. We can have more justice, more tranquility at home and security in the world, more prosperity and greater liberty if we work together as We The People. We believe that part of the brilliance of the founders was the creation of a system of government that would not only allow, but encourage that progress.

Republicans, on the other hand, see things differently. As related by Rep. King, their message is that that we've come as far as we can come, done all we can do, are all we can be. Things are as good as they're going to get, even if they're worse than they were. It's time to hunker down, cut your losses, conserve your resources and plan your escape route. They're afraid to imagine, let alone confront, what might be "yet to come."

Just another reason...

Yes, it is.

Minstrel Boy...

The main purpose of government secrecy is to protect the government from you.

It's instructive that the greatest threat posed by the recent WikiLeaks document dump was the risk of international embarrassment. Embarrassment, of course, is a manifestation of shame.

In other words, the concern was that shameful things done in the name of our country would be exposed, not to the people we did shameful things to or said shameful things about. They know who we are and what we did.

The shameful things done on our behalf would be exposed to us.

What a shame.

There's an easy fix. Government officials who don't want to be embarrassed shouldn't do things they're ashamed of. Government officials who do things they're ashamed of should be found out and turned out.

Seems to me that having a government that doesn't do shameful things should be one of the ways that America is exceptional.