This Republican campaign could use both humility and perspective

Juan Cole’s post putting the contributions of Europeans and European-Americans in historical and worldwide perspective is well worth reading, http://www.juancole.com/2016/07/stephen-people-civilization.html. I always thought humility was supposed to be a value in our culture, and with regard to race and ancestral origins, Cole certainly and appropriately gets it. There is another issue – the belief in American exceptionalism, at least to the extent that it is racialized, may be our undoing, leading too many to assume that great things are automatic and need no investment and care. The American Founders, for all their errors, would never have made that mistake. But those who wrap themselves in the Founders’ reflected glow miss both the humility and the perspective our Founders had and prove themselves unworthy.