American exceptionalism is a concept that has been eroded over the years by corrupt politicians seeking power and using taxpayer money to buy votes. As Constituted, there has never been, or ever will be again, I suspect, a country like the United States of America.
It is also a fact that those other "better" countries would not be what they are if it weren't for the US. The US provides a buffer from the onslaught of tyranny that has at various times tried to take over the globe. We are getting to the point where that buffer will no longer exist, and those other "better" countries will no longer have the protection they need from the US to remain the way they are.
A world without a free America will look much more like China or the former Soviet Union than it will look like Norway, Sweden or some of those "better" countries. That is why it is so important that we turn things around here, that we renew our commitment to liberty, limited government and the Constitution.
America needs to quit this this rush toward fascism, needs to quit protecting the ultra-rich from market competition, needs to quit allowing a central bank to manipulate our currency for the benefit of world bankers rather than the people of the US, we need to quit meddling in the affairs of foreign countries where we have no interest at stake, and we need to quit taxing people for being productive.
Do you have any idea how much our prison population would decrease if we did just one thing? That is, end this stupid war on drugs? This is partly what's wrong with America. We start a war on drugs - guess what? Drugs win. We start a war on poverty - guess what? Poverty wins. It's insane, but it is all about the concentration of power in the hands of the few, at the expense of the many. We no longer have a "government of the people, by the people and for the people." It's all in the hands of a few power corrupted individuals.
America is the problem right now. What we do will affect the entire world, even those "better" countries. If we fail, we all go down. If we succeed, and turn things around, the world will rise once again. It's up to us. It doesn't matter what Russia, China, Iran, Israel or India does. It is all up to us. We have to get this right.
We have to.
Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy
We have been the world's police force since WWII. It's been incredibly expensive. If some other country, like say Canada, had been doing the job for the last 66 years, we probably wouldn't be bankrupt.
It's not like the rest of the world loves us for doing the job of keeping evil at bay. I think Teddy Roosevelt's speech in Paris in 1910 defends America's reputation better than anything else I've ever read.
From the speech, "Citizenship in a Republic"
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
