“A large portion of my party really doesn’t believe in the Constitution.”

That dead-on description offered up by Senate Republican Mitt Romney not only explains much of today’s Republican Party but sadly, explains that given a choice, most Republicans choose recklessness over responsibility, dishonesty over integrity and loyalty over democracy.

The erosion of integrity, particularly in political leadership today, is breathtaking.

Despite apparent corruption and bribery, a Texas official is acquitted in an impeachment trial.

A state governor strikes back against a corporation over the company’s right to disagree with a state policy.

The Supreme Court, ostensibly a bastion of integrity, has two sitting justices who clearly don’t understand the words: conflict of interest.

Character is a word you don’t hear much today. But it hasn’t always been the case. We fought wars for moral reasons. We stood up to demagogues for moral reasons. Now America is at war with itself for reasons that just don’t make sense to me.

We’re not a perfect country, but we have always demonstrated the resolve to improve.

How can we support a foreign country that is fighting for democracy and its very life but remain divided over our own democratic system?

Faced with an intractable division, we need to draw from the same moral will that we used in fighting for democracy abroad; the will to do the right thing for the right reasons; to recognize that it’s better to be honest than deceitful; that t’s better to be tolerant than hateful; that it’s better to be responsible than reckless.

The only way to exorcise the demons infecting America’s soul is by recognizing our commonality.  Only then can we begin to live in harmony and, with the help of our better angels, create a more perfect union.