When I hear grandstanding imitation Martin Luthers or Martin Luther Kings — and there are so many of them — proclaiming unwillingness to compromise on their favorite principle, it makes me worry about America’s future. Whatever truth there is in these principles, it is all undone by disdain for compromise.

Since when is compromise despicable? Compromise is the core principle of liberal-democracy. If there is one place where Americans must be uncompromising, it is in our commitment to compromise.

No principle that exalts itself above the requirement to compromise has any place in a liberal democracy like the United States of America. If your favorite political principle prohibits faithful adherence to the higher principle of compromise, you are a shitty American. You do not understand the profound demands American patriotism makes on its citizens. You belong in some other more backwards country with a more primitive forms of loyalty, not here.

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If we seriously want to get back to what makes this country great, let’s imitate the Constitutional Convention. Let’s proudly make a point of respectfully disagreeing with those who view things very differently, then work hard and patiently at designing peaceful agreements, persevering as long as it takes to succeed.

And if you are one of those many people who think there is no greatness to get back to — that this country was corrupt from the very beginning and will remain corrupt to the end — please be as loudly outspoken on this point as possible so the rest of us know to what to do with your political views.

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I’ve been working on a bibliography of political writings to help those who have a taste for cultivating respect find the best specimens of various political stances. I’m collecting the very best specimens of liberal, neoliberal, democratic socialist and conservative thought. Let me know if you’re interested, and I might post it.