Despite its flaws, the ideals of America are beautiful.

It is easy – and appropriate – to remember that our founding fathers were fallible, racist, sexist people.

But it is also worth remembering that this continent – whether you look at the First Nations or the colonials that murdered them afterward – is based on not just the idea of liberty, but the ideas of respect and liberty, regardless of one’s faith (or lack thereof), regardless of one’s politics, and regardless of one’s relationships.

That this nation, this entire continent, finds cronyism, corruption, and nepotism abhorrent and alien to its ideals.

That this land, with all its faults and flaws, that this land is made for you and me.

Not for the rich.

Not for the powerful.

Not for the well-connected.

But for us.

For the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free,  the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

That, my friends, is this country.

And doom to any tyrants who try to remake it otherwise.