I stumbled upon this article by the somewhat eccentric writer Bill Kauffman, and I think it is really a beautiful article about America. I highly recommend you read it.
This is a quote from the article I found particularly exceptional.
“So no, I do not feel “ashamed” of my country, for America, as John Fogerty understood, is not Bush or Cheney or Lieberman or Kerry but my friends, my neighbors, and yes, the Grand Canyon, too. Even better, it is the little canyon and the rude stream and Tom Sawyer’s cave and all those places whose names we know, whose myths we have memorized, and whose existence remains quite beyond the ken of the Department of Homeland Security.”
Dr. Wonacott's illustrious Inconceivable Mélange of Stuff 
That is really quite a beautiful quote, and a good reminder that even when one is extremely frustrated with the current state of American political affairs, America itself (the land, the people, the ideals), are different from this twisted thing our government has become.
It gives me hope for change.
Very nice. Sad that our beautiful country should be so marred.