EVERYTHING THE TRUMPBOTS HATE:

[Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman] closed his statement by telling his father that he'd made the right choice in bringing his family to America. His statement not only pointed to American exceptionalism in regards to religious liberty, but to the rule of law.

Foreign born Hill and Vindman, an immigrant and a refugee, might have been sent from central casting to remind us of the American creed: The idea that America is about principles and values, not ancestry and ethnicity. Vindman captured this perfectly in his statement: "The members of our all-volunteer force are made up of a patchwork of people from all ethnicities, religions, and socio-economic backgrounds who come together under a common oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America."

To be an American, is to accept a certain set of political values: the idea that we are all created equal and have the same liberties. G.K. Chesterton famously called America "a nation with the soul of a church" because it was founded on a "creed." It is telling that American celebrates itself on July 4th--the day it declared its independence to the world, justified by the political principles it set forth, which formed the basis of this creed. In the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln posited a nation founded with the Declaration of Independence, rooted in the proposition that "all men are created equal."

This creed explained why America was engaged in an ugly war to end an even uglier institution.

Tweet   @brothersjudd