He wrote: "Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) has always made one wonder how a person could flee oppression in Somalia, find freedom in the U.S., and somehow end up viewing America as the villain in global affairs."

"Viewing America as the villain in global affairs"? I'm no expert on Omar's views but I doubt very seriously whether she views America as the villain in global affairs. My hunch is that she views the U.S. government — and especially the national-security-state branch of the U.S. government — as the villain in global affairs.

One of the big problems with conservatives is that they conflate the U.S. government with America the nation. For them, the government and the country are one and the same thing. Thus, given that mindset, it stands to reason that if one criticizes or condemns the U.S. government's evil and immoral acts in foreign affairs, conservatives consider that person to be criticizing our country.

But that conservative conflation of the government and the country is totally wrong-headed. The fact is that we are talking about two separate and distinct entities: The U.S. government and America the country.

This phenomenon is perfectly reflected by the Bill of Rights, which expressly protects the country from the federal government. That concept, needless to say, befuddles conservatives. The conservative no doubt asks himself: How can the Bill of Rights protect the country from the federal government given that the federal government and the country are one and the same thing?

But they are not one and the same thing. They are two separate and distinct entities. The fact that the U.S. government commits evil and immoral acts around the world does not mean that America is committing those evil and immoral acts. In fact, when a government is engaged in committing evil and immoral acts, it is up to people of that nation to put a stop to such wrongful conduct on the part of their government. That process oftentimes begins with the citizenry criticizing and condemning the government's wrongful conduct. Indeed, it might be said that an apathetic, indifferent, frightened, or even supportive populace bears moral responsibility for the evil and immorality committed by their own government.

Martin Luther King, Jr., specifically identified "my own government," not America, as the biggest purveyor of violence in the world. I don't see how any reasonable person, including Freeman or any other conservative, can dispute King's assessment. Let's go back to King's era — during the old Cold War racket, when U.S. officials and conservatives were claiming that there was an international communist conspiracy based in Moscow by which America was in danger of being taken over by the Reds (rather than by the terrorists, the Muslims, the drug dealers, and the illegal-immigrant invaders).