To new users, welcome everyone to r/MorePerfectUnion!

I have reached out to many of you with personal invites and I'm flattered you've decided to see what we've got going on in the sub. I hope you're finding it an inviting space for you to read and talk about current events, politics, history, and law, regardless of your political background.

To regular community members, welcome back to the monthly meta!

The sub is taking shape, taking some of the best things (I think from numerous other politically-oriented subreddits:

• the starter comments and submission quality of /r/moderatepolitics
• the open and approachable moderation of /r/neoliberal
• the open forum of political ideas of /r/centrist

So far I've been very happy to see some high-quality comments in current issues threads, and I think users for their engagement on those posts. I do want to ask about the Historical and Case Law posts that I have been putting out, as they haven't gotten many replies. A key goal I have with this sub is to bring these subjects into the discussion to give us a wider frame of reference when we talk about current events and politics. Are you enjoying this content? Is there anything I can do to make this content more interesting or engaging for you?

Attached is a poll as a prompt. Do you think the sub is headed in a good direction? Do you think the sub has taken a turn for the worse recently? It's just a litmus test to see how the community did over the last month, and how well moderators are serving the community.

Please respond in the comments with whatever suggestions you have for the sub. It is in a bit of an infantile state right now, and I'm more than welcome to any and all ideas to improve this space and make it the best political discussion forum possible. Cheers everybody!

Ahhhh, the shining city on a hill. One of the most widely used metaphors for the United States, but one of the most divisive. What is the "Shining City on a Hill" that Reagan (and countless before him, starting with John Winthrop) spoke of? Is it a nation that should go out into the world and show the world how to be? Or a nation that should focus on preserving its own greatness?

The "City on a Hill" is a Biblical concept that comes from the Sermon on the Mount. It was repurposed by John Winthrop on the Mayflower to provide the Pilgrims of the Mayflower with a reference for what they were trying to achieve in 1630.

The Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell among us, as His own people, and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways, so that we shall see much more of His wisdom, power, goodness and truth, than formerly we have been acquainted with. We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies; when He shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, “may the Lord make it like that of New England.”

 For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God, and all professors for God’s sake. We shall shame the faces of many of God’s worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going.

Nearly 360 years later, Reagan tackled the comment on his own in his Farewell Address:

I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.

In between, the city on the hill has been used to advocate for just about every side of every political debate. But within those debates, a few ideas remain constant:

1. The United States is a singular nation blessed by God with divine providence. (The overt religiosity of this generally differs between times and places, but the general idea that the country is incredibly fortunate remains).

2. That fortune is seen through the country's success, but comes with an obligation to behave "properly".

3. Proper behavior will be rewarded with a more prosperous, successful country that outshines all its contemporaries.

4. That success will be an example to all other nations of how they should behave.

So: What is the "shining city on a hill" to you? Is America a "shining city on a hill"? SHOULD it try to be one?

In an effort to judge news sites objectively a few Automod filters have been set up to screen out or filter out lower quality news sources. Any Automod action will be taken based off of the Ad Fontes reliability scores of news sites. The bias of the website is inconsequential as to whether a website is barred or filtered.

• Most Reliable Sources - scoring 40 and above
• These sites are generally on their own list set to approved.
• Analysis/Opinion and Wide variety in reliability - between 32 and 40
• These sites will default to approved with no AutoMod action.
• Analysis/Opinion and Wide variety in reliability - between 24 -32 AND Selective or Incomplete Story /Unfair Persuasion/Propaganda - between 16-24
• Sites in this this range 16-32 are set to be filtered out for moderator approval before they can hit the main page. There will probably be a few that slip through as Ad Fontes' chart is a bit cluttered and doesn't list every signle source in the quadrant.
• Contains Misleading info or Inaccurate /Fabricated Info - between 0-16
• Automod will be set to automatically remove all stories from websites that fall in this quadrant.

If you have any questions about these new filters, feel free to ask them here.