The, "better natures," argument like our very founding documents relies upon a presupposition of a society which, because of a faith in Natural Law, does not rely primarily or exclusively on government to codify its moral values. This is why those working so hard to subvert the American way of life have concentrated their efforts on deconstructing belief in any sort of absolute morality. When the, "heavy punitive actions," consist primarily of the disapproval of the overwhelming majority of society, it works. When the majority of society is led to believe that the proper way to deal with offensive and deviant behavior is to, "try and understand," and fully relinquish moral definitions and judgments to legislators and jurists, everybody loses. When a culture is led to deemphasive virtue and ridicule morality, situational ethics and moral relativism run rampant and those who get to define such things will increase in power. In this manner will our nation be lost.
That is all good as far as it goes but it doesn't answer the question I asked.