Virtue of American Spirit

To escape the frustrating state of affairs in Washington, Americans both young and old often look back to the times in our nation’s history when spirits were high and national pride was contagious. Sometimes they lose sight of the fact that America is still the best country in the world.In The American Spirit: Celebrating the Virtues and Values that Makes Us Great, Dr Edwin J. Feulner and Brian Tracy remind us of the defining principles that make the United States incomparable to any other nation.

“We make a fairly bold claim, especially if you talk about political correctness in this day and age, and that is that America is an exceptional nation,” Feulner said at Tuesday’s Bloggers Briefing. “The way we distinguish American exceptionalism is, in the words of our former Heritage colleague Dinesh D’Souza, that in America everybody starts with a blank slate. Everybody can be anything that she or he wants to be.”

The president of the Heritage Foundation, Dr. Feulner stressed how concepts such as capitalism and equality of opportunity are instrumental in preserving the purity of the American spirit from government influence. Feulner was optimistic that there would a resurgence of these ideals and concluded his talk by calling on bloggers and other media outlet contributors to lead the charge.

“I hope you will take some time to engage in conversations on your own media outlets in terms of how we regenerate a belief in what makes America exceptional and re-enthuse the American people.”

Richard Thompson is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.

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