So says David Brooks:

...the core ideals of this country, articulated by Jefferson, Walt Whitman, Lincoln, F.D.R., Truman, J.F.K., Reagan and now Bush.

Good for him for throwing Whitman into the mix! I wonder if Brooks enjoyed this passage from Leaves of Grass as much as I did:

I remember I saw only that man who passionately clung to me,
Again we wander, we love, we separate again,
Again he holds me by the hand, I must not go,
I see him close beside me with silent lips sad and tremulous.

(from "Once I Pass'd Through A Populous City")

Beautiful! (By the way, the rest of Brooks' column wasn't all that bad, though naturally misguided. I'll try to come up with a less juvenile response tomorrow...)