Steven F. Hayward  Steven F. Hayward, Contributor  11/26/2013 @
12:16PM |1,366 views  Having Ignored Iran's Character, The Obama
Administration Appeases It  Press Conference with Secretary of
State John ...  Press Conference with Secretary of State John
Kerry on P5+1 Talks on Iran’s Nuclear Program (Photo credit: US
Mission Geneva)  “Every nation,” Abraham Lincoln taught, “has a
central idea from which all its minor thoughts radiate.” This is
not literally true of every nation—quick, can anyone tell the
central idea of Belgium or Norway?—but it is true of every great
or ambitious nation. The United States, as Lincoln taught and
Tocqueville perceived, was dedicated to the central democratic
idea of equal rights, and it produces citizens in whom the
democratic ethos runs true and deep. Nations with anti-
democratic or revolutionary ideologies tend to produce degraded
and dysfunctional citizens, which in the past has contributed to
economic ruin or warlike designs.  The point is: just as
individuals have a certai