You have to be loyal to a dream country rather than to the one to which you wake up every morning. Unless such loyalty exists, the ideal has no chance of becoming actual. — Richard Rorty

â??Loyalty to a dream countryâ?? is the idealism necessary to fully achieve democracy, and yet that loyalty to a dream country is also the ideological fervor behind fascism and nationalism. Unless we live in a world of strict realpolitik, we are destined to tread that fine line between the secular and religious in politics. There is and always has been a transcendent core to politics, the need to feel a part of something larger, and to merge with others in unity of purpose. This drive is part and parcel of the human experience, and wonâ??t go away, no matter how much we secularize our schools, government, and politics. (more…)