If the undocumented have to work hard to attain citizenship, those of us who already are citizens should have to work hard to sustain it. We should all have to serve more, vote more, build more, and do more for our country. Eric Liu Read Quote
From the right, you get demagogues shouting about brown-skinned anchor babies and clamoring to deport the undocumented. From the left, you get advocacy for the oppressed but otherwise, when it comes to national civic identity, mainly silence. Eric Liu Read Quote
Conservatives forget that citizenship is more than a thing to withhold from immigrants. Progressives forget it’s more than a set of rights. Eric Liu Read Quote
We all want merit to mean something, and we all may be tempted to reduce that meaning to something measurable and concrete like an SAT score. The reality, though, is that who deserves entry into an institution depends on what the institution exists to do. Eric Liu Read Quote
To be sure, the United States has profound problems, not least our faltering educational and physical infrastructure. Eric Liu Read Quote
Much of our national debate proceeds as if China and America were locked in a zero-sum game in which one’s loss is precisely the other’s gain. Eric Liu Read Quote
True fans of the Constitution, like true fans of the national pastime, acknowledge the critical role of human judgment in making tough calls. We don’t expect flawless interpretation. We expect good faith. We demand honesty. Eric Liu Read Quote
Sometimes when I listen to fellow progressives, I wonder if the only lesson we took away from the ’04 elections is that politics is a word game. Eric Liu Read Quote
The Purpose-Driven Life’ is not just a mega-bestselling work of Christian faith; it is the thing that every voter, secular or not, yearns for. Eric Liu Read Quote
You cannot mistake Bush’s clarity of purpose. He believes in a story about freedom and opportunity that makes his followers feel like they aren’t just ticking their days down but are part of something larger than themselves. Eric Liu Read Quote
