Well, I understand your point---there is certainly some validity there---but I think you are overly harsh on yourself and other Americans and also underestimating the power and versatility of the worldwide organized hard left (WOHL).
"It takes no courage to stand up for what's right over here in the U.S., it should be a natural but yet we allow ourselves to be browbeaten by the ACLU and other idiots, we are willfully allowing them to degrade our society and take away our rights--why? Lack of courage and conviction. period. Pansies in other words."
First of all, the WOHL (which includes the ACLU) is organized on a worldwide basis. True, the organization is very loose in many ways---but it's there. Secondly, their techniques are extremely sophisticated.
One of their primary goals is to strip away people's motivation to oppose them. There is a multidimensional strategy in this record. Personally, you experience it as, "Oh, what's the use." You are not aware of the way different messages from different sources are adding up to discourage you---but the WOHL is.
The techniques of the WHL also sometimes include blackmail and murder---even here in the US.
(Please read this book: Hillary’s Secret War, The Clinton Conspiracy to Muzzle Internet Journalists, by Richard Poe, WND Books, 2004.)
"It seems that all our citizens with true courage, conviction and guts are in Iraq and Afghanistan--or are rotating back to the bases."
I'm sure you realize this is an exaggeration. These troops are part of us---the best of us, in many respects,but still Americans, like we are. The vast Republican volunteer effort to elect George Bush in 2004 was one example of ordinary people acting with energy and purpose to do something to preserve our freedom.