The person with whom I was speaking was an international student who I am pretty sure wanted me to take the Glenn Beck route and say all is good in the old U.S.A., and that no country across the world has it better than we do.

I did not disappoint him, and I quickly moved down the list of “Great Accomplishments 101.” But, I also quickly moved into a stance that although we have done great things, have moved humanity forward from some really dark days and have played a role in making the world — or at least the good old U.S.A. — a better place, we have become a bit stagnant in our positive movement upward on the ladder of greatness and perfection.

Yes, we are fighting for human rights in Afghanistan, saving the wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico and sending out preachers from every English-speaking faith to the far reaches of the planet to convert the unwashed and ignorant. But there are some additional things to think about when it comes to “American Democracy.”

When we started these United States, we were far from democratic. “All men are created equal” is a nice phrase, but in 1776, equality didn’t stray too far from money and land possession. It also didn’t stray from white men — Native American Indians, minorities, women, the list goes on ­— received decidedly unequal treatment.

The United States has changed during the years for the better; there absolutely is no denying that.

The problem is that we seem to have hit a plateau and, much like losing weight, we aren’t progressing much further, and certainly not in an upward direction.

Why am I thinking this way? Let me throw out a few ideas and see where they might fall.

We always are spouting off the importance of rights, but strangely enough we fail to realize that victims have rights, too. Yes, I know we have Victims’ Rights legislation and it is much better than it was years ago.

But where was it ever intended by our founding fathers that a videotape of a mass murderer laughing on camera as he slaughters a family cannot be used because in the heat of the arrest someone in charge did not make sure every “i” was dotted and verified by a collection of American Civil Liberties Union lawyers?

We seem to be at odds with the middle road — a place where we don’t bow to the extremes of the left and right. Shouldn’t we look at what we can and cannot do and make decisions that will attempt to do the best we can for the people around us?

American Democracy has become a bit tainted in these past few years, and maybe that is why some discussion needs to be started.

We are on the verge of another assault on a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body. The far right will demand a woman has no rights in this respect because the unborn cells have constitutional rights that preempt any woman.

So is that democracy at work? I think a little more conversation is needed before one takes away another’s rights.

You have a right to have any form of weapon you want, but if I decide to cut my toenails, I will need to go before the “Toenail Board” for approval.

This brings back the wonderful days of the ’60s, when a group of protesters could camp out on my lawn because they had a right to protest, but they felt I had no right to tell them to get off my lawn.

It reminds me of the “Occupy Everything” movement. If I didn’t know better, I would say these protesters went to the same school of learning about democracy as the far right. Both are very good at highlighting their rights and completely ignoring others.

More than 200 years ago, the U.S. plowed ahead against an oppressive regime across the ocean that demanded people pray the same way, live the same way and be taxed out of existence simply because they, the power, had the right to do it. We’ve come those 200 years, and I don’t know if we have learned anything.

Every time you turn around, someone in power is demanding you do it their way. Whether it is Barack Obama, Wayne LaPierre, Grover Norquist, Karl Rove, Sarah Palin, Tea Party activists, “Occupy” protesters, the ACLU or the growing tribe of religious fanatics; there is a never-ending stream of voices raised to demand that we, as a nation, be forced into doing it “their way.”

And if you happen to be anti-assault weapons or pro-abortion or any of a thousand other beliefs, you are un-American.

Thank you members of King George’s inner circle. I thought we got rid of you a long time ago. Maybe that dream my ancestors had has turned into a nightmare.

Craig Gunn is a guest columnist at The State News and an academic specialist in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Reach him at gunn@egr.msu.edu.