Leave the "morals & ethics" to the philosphers and Holy Men - The governments job is to print money, build roads, maintain infrastructure, provide for defense and keep "a semi-level" playing field between the states.
Mixing "morality & ethics" with the power of government is a recipe for disaster...
Note that I said that I want a COUNTRY that embraces morals and ethics, not a government...althought that would be a nice bonus.
In my training as a Marine Officer, morality and ethics were a key part of good leadership. I agree that it is an individual responsibility to figure out what is right and wrong. The better you can do that, the better leader you may become (good leadership requires many elements).
Have you read the Declaration of Independence, Constitution or Bill of Rights lately? Those documents are full of philosophy, morality and ethical platitudes. The reality is that nation building and nation maintenance requires passionate commitment to the greater good and dispassionate knowledge of (as well as the ability to articulate the results of) current American policy. A serious setback in the GWOT has been a deficit of ideologically confident Americans. A further setback has been the steady assault on the minority of ideological Americans by stereotyping them all as “neocons”. If you’ve read anything about American history you'd know that we didn't get here by dispassionately building roads and power plants.
Well said.