American Values - Exactly WHAT are they?

I guess it depends who you talk to these days. It was pretty black and white for a while there - you know we ALL agreed that torture was NOT an American value and that racism was BAD and that our constitutional freedoms were practically SACRED. Not anymore. Nowadays, it depends which party you belong to as to which 'values' are and are not American. Basically the Republican Party believes that democratic party values are not American, that racist comments are fine while you are campaigning, that some forms of torture are okay and that the constitution is 'old-hat.' As long as you believe in God, you can pretty much believe in anything else and be considered a patriotic American as far as the Republican Party is concerned. Senator McCain and the other top Republicans who vehemently fought Bush on his terrorism 'clauses,' gave in a few days ago. They found common ground, you ask? No, what they did was find acceptable WORDING to allow Bush to breach the Geneva Convention and International and Constitutional law. As long as it SOUNDS like we are following the proper codes of conduct, and as long as it APPEARS that the President has stopped breaking American laws, then it's okay with McCain, Warner and Lindsey.