What's the Moral High Ground Anyway?

As Robert P. Jones watched recent debates unfold, the director of the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute was struck by how much the discourse had changed in just over a dozen years. From World War I to the Iraqi War, the United States went to great lengths to argue why military action was necessary to stave off evil across the globe. Politicians and philosophers alike agonized over moral quandaries such as what constitutes a fair and equal response, how do you maintain the high ground over terrorists without scruples and, most important, what allows America to continue viewing itself as a good nation?