America has more resources and wealth than any other nation on Earth yet remains in the throes of ignorance, racism, and callousness.
America should be -- and could be -- a land of peace, tranquility and happiness for all its citizens, but is instead coming apart at the seems and is hopelessly divided between the GOP’s fascist thugs and super-privileged plutocrats, on the one hand, and the slight majority of the rest of us on the other.
What makes us exceptional is our inability to harness the tremendous potential of the country and of its people despite efforts by our best and brightest to do so. What makes us exceptional is the tragic but clear fact that the so-called “dark side” of humanity effectively has stifled the light, stifled the truth, stifled democracy, effectively and consistently. It has done so ever since Reagan’s foolish condemnation of the very utility of the government that he was elected to lead. What makes us exceptional is that Reagan and similar little-minds like Newt Gingrich, George W. Bush, and the Fat Man have managed to win over to the dark side the hearts and brittle minds of so many of us -- including many the very people who are most hurt by them.
Most other countries whose people have lost their freedoms to an oppressor had that freedom forcibly taken away by powerful figures and forces they could not effectively oppose. America, the exceptional country, did it by referendum: our citizens simply gave their freedom away -- to Reagan, to Gingrich, GW Bush, and the Fat Man.
(I know an actual majority of voters disdained Bush and Fat Man, but nearly half of us voted to give them the power they used to make every citizen, but the wealthiest and/or best politically connected, smaller and weaker.)
So, I believe we are still an “exceptional” nation.
= new reply since forum marked as read