Nations around the world came to be influenced by the powerful first words of the United States Declaration of Independence:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." - 1776
And it was against this backdrop the Declaration of Independence - that one of the most remarkable legal document ever conceived, The United States Constitution, came into being - the Magna Carta of this age in terms of its worldwide historical and ongoing importance.
The document was first aimed at a society that (while rife with injustice, including slavery and the ridiculous notion that women weren't persons among other evils of the age) still worked on the idea that a just society is one wherein all humans are considered people and where all people have inalienable rights.
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution is singular, and the basis (I firmly believe) for the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as similar charters throughout the world:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Defenders of an absolutist Second Amendment argue they require weapons to preserve the First Amendment. They have that backward: Without this opening declaration of rights, all other amendments - including to bear arms - would exist in a shaky foundation.
In one short paragraph we find freedom of conscience, freedom of the press, freedom of association, the right of people to peacefully assemble, and the guaranteed capacity hit or miss though it may sometimes be - to make the government accountable to the people by enshrining the right that people can petition the government.
The underlying message, then, was that the Government belongs to the People, is made up of people, and should fear its citizens (rather than the reverse).
And now fools such as WA Root would undo all that work in service to his own demented ideas about how the US should look:
He's a thankless historical illiterate who doesn't seem to realise the United States has already blown almost of the good will it had accrued since its inception - by engaging in bully tactics against other nation states, by failing to meets its monetary obligations to a world that saved the country (if only temporarily) from catastrophic financial ruin, by allying time and time again with regimes that have absolutely appalling human rights records just to save a few bucks and as a cover to activities most Americans would decry were they to become known.
It will take the US a hundred years to regain global trust and respect after Trump is done being "great" assuming it ever does.
The necessary but misguided reaction to a terrorist attack on US soil divided not only the country but all its allies as well. That was as nothing, however, compared to the level of fracture Trump is deliberately attempting to create.
Trump doesn't seem to think the US needs allies: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/05/malcolm-turnbull-says-trump-phone-call-worked-in-australias-favour
...and, if he continues with this nonsense, the US will not have any allies.
If the US is attacked again or faces famine through crop failure or any other calamities either natural or man-made, it's becoming more and more likely that no one else will care to help pick up the pieces.
