I spent the last week with my Modern Liberal relatives in New York. It was excruciating. What I found was cynicism beyond belief -- and beyond all rational (in fact any rational) thought.

The correct answer to all things was whatever the worst interpretation of America and Americans could be. This was typified in discussions about the Michael Jackson jury who my relative was convinced would come back with a quick verdict because "they just want to go home" and, when that proved untrue were only delaying the announcement of their verdict to increase the "excitement" making the book they were conspiring to write that much more of a best seller.

This was not much different than Passover dinner with the cousins I adore. When the conversation turned to the Sudan and why America sent troops to liberate Iraq but not protect the Sudanese the assumption -- beyond question -- was that evil, horrible America wouldn't help the blacks of Africa but would do anything to steal the oil from the Arab world.

Of no interest to my leftist loved ones was the reality that the Sudanese, as horrible as their crimes are, never invaded their neighbors, never bombed other countries and wasn't a linchpin in the world of international terror. It was simply a given that whatever the worst they could think about America simply must be true.

Similarly, it was beyond my New York relatives that perhaps the jurors would take seriously their charge as arbiters of the fate of another and thoughtfully deliberate the laws and the evidence. Every wrong that could be attributed to the American judicial system was simply accepted as "the truth."

This same relative in New York, when asked why America hasn't been attacked since the day we started fighting against the terrorists insisted that "it just happened." No credit would ever be given to the efforts of our fighting forces and our Commander-in-Chief.

These aren't the Dick Durbins, desperately seeking to cling to personal power and wealth by viciously slandering America. These are good and decent people with no financial interest in attacking the United States. And yet it is the mindset of so many Americans -- Democrats all -- to mindlessly, thoughtlessly, stupidly attributed all evils to America at every time on every issue.

It's a sickness and a sadness and it bodes ill for the future of the country and thus the world.