For most of my most recent past, I have been hearing politicians define America in increasingly shrinking terms. They talk about how we can't do this or that; how some of us are better than the rest of us. They talk down instead of up.
For most of that past, these talkers have been Republicans - the spokesmen, paid or otherwise, for the few, the powerful and the ones with an investment in fear. Their speeches have dumbed down the concept of true exceptionalism into unexceptional platitudes, and I like many others have often felt constrained and frustrated by limitations of what is politically possible.
But then, yesterday, President Obama spoke at Selma, Ala., and he provided an explanation for why America truly is exceptional that stands in stark contrast to limited view of those others. It was a better expression of love of country than the words of professional patriots who continually mock and deride him.
If you're unfamiliar with the speech, follow beyond the Golden Curlicue to discover why today is different from yesterday, and why I feel more patriotic now than I have in a long, long time.