You missed this part;
'I'm not suggesting we shouldn't love our country and the flag that stands for it, I'm saying we need it to actually live up to the principles we say we stand for. We haven't been doing such a hot job of that for at least the past half century. Once ya'll flag wavers figure that out, maybe we can finally get to the business of doing something to fix it.'
You either don't get what I'm saying here or you're willfully blind to the idea that we can look as bad to others as we're told they look to us.
It's a sign of immaturity or sociopathic thinking not to be able to see how your actions affect others. This is just as true on a national level as a personal one.
Finally a well thought out and articulate argument and I agreed more than you might think on a philosophical level.
I can't say don't cross our border, while we continue to post job openings south of the border.
I can't say don't hack our election while we hack elections around the world.
I can't say Trump is corrupt and then not look at all the corruption in politics and media (that's all media right and left).
I can't say everyone can come into our country when people we let in are found in heavily fortified terrorist bases.
I can't say you have to be perfect when nobody can be perfect.
I can say because of its people America is still the best thing going.
The flag wavers did figure it out, and I don't mean Confederate or Nazi flags. What you expressed here is exactly why Trump is in office. I do not particularly care for him personally, but at least he is putting good people in the right posts, maybe not your people, but good people. Take Gorsuch, as fine a candidate as any to serve on the Supreme Court replacing Scalia. I don't agree with him or any one else for that matter who might try to overturn RvW, it is the choice of the woman, but I also believe the Declaration lists life as our first, God given, right.
If another position opens like Kennedy, Breyer or maybe Ginsburg then Garland would be the best replacement and Trump should put him forth, conservative for conservative, liberal for liberal, but don't say it is a stolen seat though because the Republicans used the Joe Biden rule to block Garland, which is, no president can fill an empty Supreme Court seat in their final year, let the election decide.