1. One of the main things that makes America exceptional is that it has historically stood for liberal principles compared to other countries.
One of the main things that make America and France exceptional is that they have this founding myth, which has influenced their policies for good and bad.
It's not exactly a wrong statement they way you put it, but it's highly biased.
2. The public school system is the greatest and strongest bastion of socialism in America and this is a bad thing.
No. Neither the first nor the second.
3. Among different types of political activism, the effectiveness of zealous passion and hard work is heavily underrated.
Occasionally, yes.
4. Powerful individuals and groups cannot be trusted to use that power benevolently and thus must be constrained.
Yes.
5. The most significant cleavage in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the 1990s was between pluralists and confrontationists.
No, it was between involveds and uninvolveds.
6. The eight years of Bill Clinton's presidency witnessed the most dramatic improvement in America's domestic economic and social environment from the Kennedy era to today.
Hmmm...lemme think about that...no, not really.
7. My views are morally superior to the alternatives and not just formed due to self-interest, or one of many possible equally valid positions.
My views are morally superior to some of the alternatives, but others of the alternatives are often equally valid. They are certainly not formed just due to self-interest, though.
8. A family with two parents and children living in the suburbs is a desirable lifestyle and forms the core basis of our society.
No. A family with two parents, two grandparents, seven children and dad's unmarried younger brother (banging his eldest niece) in a two-room flat on the fifth floor of a backstreet tenement on the Lower East Side is. As is the same family in an agricultural laborer's shack out in the boondogs. Suburbs are an abomination.
9. The most important question in the abortion debate is at what point the fetus becomes a person.
No, that's settled. It's at birth. Person is a legal term, not a biological one. And the most significant cleavage in the abortion conflict in the US today is between pluralists and confrontationists.
10. Economic prosperity is just as important as political freedom for third world countries in Africa and Asia.
Economic prosperity ... is important too. Economic self-determination is just as important as political freedom, but a far more elusive goal. Still, it's what people really want when they're out on the barricades.
