I am a long-time admirer of American Exceptionalism, as I understood America to be the very first society in history to recognize that our freedoms arise from something innate within us and not from the government. Or as the Founders put it, "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
