This strain of thought runs from the founding fathers through Abraham Lincoln through the civil rights movement. This strain of thought championed reason and universal morality above passion and tribalism, and emerged with a belief in the value of democracy and individual rights—principles that were always true, but never properly applied. This strain of thought suggests that America is always an imperfect union, but it is indeed a union—and that we are always in the process of strengthening and growing that union, built on the foundations of founding ideals.
