The (Second) Age Of Enlightenment

"This is a good time to remember who we are,...We are the largest and most technologically powerful economy in the world, the leading industrial power of the world, and the wealthiest nation in the world,...We are the oldest continuing democracy in the world, operating, since March 4, 1789, under a vibrant and enduring constitution that was formed by geniuses and is revered, still, coast to coast. We don't make refugees, we admit them. When the rich of the world get sick, they come here to be treated, and when their children come of age, they send them here to our universities. We have a supple political system open to reform, and a wildly diverse culture that has moments of stress but plenty of give.

...The point is that while terrible challenges face us—improving a sick public education system, ending the easy-money culture, rebuilding the economy—we are building from an extraordinary, brilliant and enduring base."

-- Peggy Noonan, reminding us that - while there's a lot of idiots in this country - it's a fact which our founders were well aware, in The Wall Street Journal.