America's "Fundamental Goodness"?

Here's the passage from Senator Brownback's speech on American exceptionalism and our "fundamental goodness":

[I]deas and ideals live on, picked up by the next generation, the next Reagan, the next King, and while some battles have already been won, others remain to be fought. When Reagan traveled the country for General Electric, as I noted, in the '50s, he would often speak about this characteristic of uniqueness to American, American exceptionalism. As I noted, this great nation made up of people from all over the world had a special place and a special destiny for mankind. . . .

But what is the basis for this American calling, this American exceptionalism? I believe it is in our fundamental goodness, and that if we lose our goodness we will most surely lose our greatness. Certainly we have our problems and often get things wrong, at least for a while, but then some movement based on goodness and fixing what's wrong will start up and not stop until the problem is eliminated.

There are many good exhortations in the speech, and as I said it's great to see Christian conservative leaders out in front on Darfur, Congo, prisoners, etc.  But it's hard to read a reference to America's "fundamental goodness" without thinking that the doctrine of original sin is being overlooked here, with potentially bad consequences.  (Without going into detail here, I'd assert that most of the big mistakes the nation has made in Iraq and the anti-terrorism campaign have stemmed from a failure to take into account original sin.)  It's hard to inject some sober recognition of the limits and dangers that inhere even in good causes without undermining the vision of moral possibilities that inspires people to act for such a good cause in the face of opposition.  But the two have to be there.

Tom