by Ed Brodow
American Thinker
My generation believed in the United States. We believed in its respect for the individual, in its Constitution, in its status as the only benign superpower in history. In other words, we believed in American exceptionalism. “Traditional American values are worthy of a passionate defense,” said author and TV commentator Monica Crowley. Referring to these values as “the American project,” Charles Murray, author of Coming Apart, defined it as the continuing effort “to demonstrate that human beings can be left free as individuals and families to live their lives as they see fit, coming together voluntarily to solve their joint problems.” If you boil it down, what makes our society unique in world history is the respect accorded the rights of the individual citizen. The Constitution was written as a restraint on the power of the government to interfere in our lives.