It's an inclusive affirmation of the ideals of openness, tolerance, diversity, equality and that much-abused concept, freedom.
Whereas European nations tend to "conceive of nationhood and national belonging in ethno-religious and cultural-linguistic terms," the United States associates citizenship with the affirmation of an ideal of freedom that explicitly precludes the persecution of religious minorities.
And all Americans should pause from the heated political rhetoric and reflect on the sense of accomplishment, win or lose, that his candidacy represents - an affirmation of that American ideal.
He began his bid a year before Barack Obama began his, and although their politics and characters, their stories and styles, could otherwise hardly be less alike, Sarkozy, too, defined himself as a transformational leader: a child of half-foreign ancestry, whose very candidacy was an affirmation of the Republic's ideals.
Nerds, Weirdos, social liberals, and conservatives all feel a sense of threat and insecurity and long for affirmation of their personality and ideals.
They craved one last exhibition of genius and affirmation of belief — the Platonic ideal of tennis, incarnate.
The social and individual affirmation of autonomy as a founding value, and of self-determination as a right [ 10] has created an ideal character of self-control [ 11], empathy and critical (and serene) evaluation, which likely, openly or unconsciously, people refer to.
Now that is an affirmation of faith.
She needs affirmation of her worth.
It was an affirmation of life.
It is an affirmation of national solidarity.
