Full disclosure: On some websites I am referred to (variously) as a Lincoln apologist, a "federal bootlicker" and a "statist a-hole" because I argue the union side of the WBTS conflict. Usually I shrug it off, although I have offered to meet a couple in the meat world to, ahem, resolve our differences.
History is always more messy and complicated than a couple of hastily-dashed comments on a message board can sustain. It's all too easy to offer a comment without the proper context that makes a whole universe of difference.
An unambiguous fact is that our nation was conceived as an experiment in governance. No nation like it had ever stood before. The very fact that it survived the violent circumstance of its birth is impressive beyond compare. The fact that no nation conceived since has had the courage to admit and imbue the inviolate rights of liberty that our constitution defines says something.
When I argue it's usually around a topic like the WBTS where there's lots of finger-pointing. Both sides claim their "side" was right and righteous (and typically that the other side was the spawn of the devil). The truth is that neither was totally right or totally wrong. The central fact is that, since our nation's inception (and even before) men have had differing opinions on how it should look, how it should function, and what its core principles would be. Sometimes profound differences of opinion. One need look no further than the "Alien and Sedition Act" or the Whiskey Rebellion to see that controversy and conflict has existed in our little slice of heaven since the very beginning.
There was a point during the Revolutionary War when people were convinced that we would never ever possibly get ourselves out of the debt we had incurred. Yet we did pay it off. In 1812 we saw our capitol burn and many thought the grand experiment was over but we endured and overcame and prospered. For five years of the 1860's we set ourselves to the purpose of killing as many of our brothers and neighbors as we could and many thought we could never come together again. Although some still harbor bad blood those days are largely passed. As an aside, I would submit that the notion that at one time we called it "these United States" and then it shifted to "The United States" is a red herring. In truth it there have always been references to both.
I've said that the existential threat to our nation is islam, but the truth is that the true existential threat to the future of our nation is leftists and their regressive "progressive movement". Their unwillingness to face reality, be it radical islamic terror, unchecked invasion of our country by "immigrant" invaders, or runaway spending, they refuse to show any common sense or restraint.
They've gotten away with it for a while because it is vastly easier to spend ones way into a hole than it is to pay ones way out of it. What the Øbongo regime is doing can't go on because it is literally killing us. It remains to be seen whether or not "we" (editorial we) have the courage to put things right once the miserable SOB exits stage left.
Rebuilding America can't happen unless people recognize the need, muster the energy, construct a plan, and marshal the necessary resources. Right now we are unable to even complete step one.