"Can go on promoting," should be changed to: "get back to living by."
Our government is currently busy abusing and or destroying all of the things that made it a great country.
We don't need to shovel those ideas on other people as much as we need to stand for them again. Leading by example is radically more powerful than trying to tell people to do what I say but not what I do.
I don't think the current level of abuse and hypocrisy is greater than in the past hundred years. The us has always preached freedom and democracy while conducting secret wars, openly supporting utterly horrific dictatorships etc etc
I remain to be convinced it is a lot worse than previously, and most of the world still tends to believe Churchill's maxim - democracy is the worst form of government, apart from all the others
Tl dr - keep insisting on an end to torture sure, but don't say it was better in the old days.
Our government is currently busy abusing and or destroying all of the things that made it a great country.
We don't need to shovel those ideas on other people as much as we need to stand for them again. Leading by example is radically more powerful than trying to tell people to do what I say but not what I do.