America is exceptional: but because it yields the likes of Obama, not the likes of Bush.

My grandfather was a general in the Nationalist Chinese Air Force during World War II, and I grew up hearing the pilot stories and seeing pictures of him in uniform.

Society becomes how you behave.

True patriots measure themselves not by personal wealth or power but by the degree to which they contribute to the community.

Love of country cannot be a supersized version of individual narcissism. True love of country-of this country-is love of our children, of a creed that promises them a better life before it promises us anything, and embraces the sacrifices needed to make that better life. True love of country is giving ourselves to a cause and a purpose larger than ourselves. And that cause is to make liberty worth having, to make the pursuit of happiness deeper than the quest for personal pleasure, and to leave a legacy of progress and possibility.

Identity in America is complicated but it's also simple: it's about whom you identify with and who identifies with you.

To be sure, the United States has profound problems, not least our faltering educational and physical infrastructure.