Hence the mention of some pretty clear historic problems we have to address. I also don’t fully support some of our recent wars, and I don’t pretend to say we’re perfect. We’ve pretty clearly done some bad things even quite recently.

What I love about this country is that we talk about it, we struggle with it, we do so publicly, and eventually we try to do the right thing. Our ideals are pretty good, just really hard to live up to, and the real world is complicated. We support dictators abroad, we have a racially unequal (though improving, albeit too slowly) society, there are no saints among great nations.

The point is in trying to live up to the ideals. If we compare to other great powers, I think we do better than most historically. As long as we keep moving toward universal human rights and freedom, however imperfectly, I’m on board.