Much of our national debate proceeds as if China and America were locked in a zero-sum game in which one's loss is precisely the other's gain.

In the end no segregationist scheme has withstood the force of a simple idea: equality under law.

Today's multiracial Americans are at greater liberty to choose how they'd like to be seen, and under less pressure to pass for white.

What does purpose mean? It means the deepest desire for our short lives to mean something. . . . To speak a language of purpose is to return to first principles and to be able to answer, in plain English, the plain questions of Why? Why should we chip in to help someone else? Why should we defer gratification? Why should we care about the long term? Why should we trust anyone who seems to be limiting our ability to do what we want?

The strongest streak in the American character is a fierce pragmatism that mistrust blind ideology of every stripe and insists on finding what really works.

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

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