When you remove all of the government abuse and incompetence surrounding our foreign policy, it basically boils down to one essential point - we are still allowed to dissent from our leaders and live to tell about it. Oppressed individuals in Iran, Iraq and elsewhere aren't so lucky.
A case in point was Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recent appearance at Boston College, located in a famous bastion of liberalism (or as our right-wing friends like to call it the People's Republic of) Massachusetts. Ironically, the one state that recognizes gay marriage has the lowest divorce rate in the nation - a true oxymoron for the homophobes fighting for the institution of marriage out there.
Let's also remember that Rice, an African-American female, is a few heartbeats away from assuming the most powerful position in the world. When was the last time you could say that about the Al Qaeda leadership?
Sidebar: It's pretty embarassing that, the United States, one of the biggest historical proponents for female rights have still not had one woman President. Everyone is frothing about a potential Hillary Clinton administration but there is a large segment of our society that refuses to vote for a woman, regardless of their policies. How 19th Century of us.
The point is that while the federal government is trying to listen to our phone records, sell our medical histories to the HMOs, and allow biblical objects to appear on taxpayer funded property, we can still voice our discontent with it and not get our tongues chopped off.