I completely agree that a partnership model is morally superior to mutual respect as a model. My point is that mutual respect is preferable to what is.

In your article you were speaking of society as a whole, not small entities within it. For the governance of society, mutual respect is an advance beyond Liberalism that would produce a society that would still be familiar: maximum liberty, political democracy, and even the same economic system--but with way better outcomes for society, including ending poverty and enhancing sustainability. It is a doable next step in ethics for humanity with irrefutable material results.