I didn't vote because my view lies somewhere between the first and second choices.
Prior to the 60's,my father(who was both a WW2 and Korean War vet) was a blackman living in the South under Jim Crow Laws and my mother was an Ononadonga Indian living in the Res (an extremely povert stricken place back then,Still is) in upstate NY.Seems they had a different view of that "beacon of freedom" since they both where beaten,arrested,spit upon,attacked by police dogs,and shot engaging in peaceful civil rights demonstrations just somI can enjoy the freedoms I enjoy today.Before the 60s, the United States was a beacon of freedom. But it turned into an aristocracy establishing a destructive ruling class as both its decadent Left and Right Wings shared power. These heirheads were spoiled and pushy, sheltered and ignorant, self-obsessed and anti-majority. Previously, the rule of the majority had created the greatest country on earth.
Before the 60s, the United States was a beacon of freedom.
The one which best describes my view out of the three is #2, but my view is between #1 and #2. The United States, to me, is the best place to live for the type of freedom and quality of life that I desire. I also believe it has a great potential to become the ideal society as it would be in my mind. However, its government and citizens have currently and historically hurt a lot of people including one another. Both have also displayed frequently certain traits that I consider damaging and wholly negative such as hypocrisy, blinding pride and hatred.Which best describes your view of the United States?
Considering the amount of power we could project, I would say we have shown incredible restraint in dealing with our enemies, we have kept our borders open to the detriment of our own society, and we continue to let people express themselves in all sorts of ways that degrade faith in and loyalty to our country.
I voted number 1 because we are such a free society, we are willing to throw it all away because the ideals it would take to protect it would degrade those freedoms. One of two things will have to happen IMO. We will either recognize the greatness of our republic and fight to protect it from outside influence , or we will devolve into a European like state where we wield no actual power, but because of our past power we will expect that the next superpower heed our advice.
It's not as if we have shown restraint simply because we are "good" or "heroes" as #1 describes us. Instead, we have often shown restraint in order to protect ourselves. One of the main reasons we show restraint is because we neither want to overextend ourselves (as we've already done, to be honest) nor be the catalyst for an internationally dangerous situation. Consequently, to base our "goodness" on something that we are doing less out of being "good" and more out of protecting ourselves is wrongheaded.Considering the amount of power we could project, I would say we have shown incredible restraint in dealing with our enemies, we have kept our borders open to the detriment of our own society, and we continue to let people express themselves in all sorts of ways that degrade faith in and loyalty to our country.
I voted number 1 because we are such a free society, we are willing to throw it all away because the ideals it would take to protect it would degrade those freedoms. One of two things will have to happen IMO. We will either recognize the greatness of our republic and fight to protect it from outside influence , or we will devolve into a European like state where we wield no actual power, but because of our past power we will expect that the next superpower heed our advice.
Before the 60s, the United States was a beacon of freedom. But it turned into an aristocracy establishing a destructive ruling class as both its decadent Left and Right Wings shared power. These heirheads were spoiled and pushy, sheltered and ignorant, self-obsessed and anti-majority. Previously, the rule of the majority had created the greatest country on earth.
Instead of a united nation we are a nation of dog eat dog, social darwnists.
I would say the turning point was December 23, 1913. At that point, financial control of the United States was transferred from the government, and thus from the people, to a small group of private business owners who have been using it for their own gain ever since.
But even in spite of our flaws, we still strive to be freer than other countries. Even when we fail to live up to that ideal, we still strive for it reaaaaalllly hard. Now, when we can eliminate the institutionalized racism, poverty, sexism, religious bigotry, oppression of gays, warmongering, and mass incarceration of non-violent drug users, then we'll be "the world's most exceptional nation, a beacon of freedom, the good guys and heroes." Though the strength of that position will be diminished if we don't stop lagging behind the rest of the world. We're the slowest in the industrialized world to adopt social equality, like gay marriage. And remember how we took our sweet time abolishing slavery? We really have a lot of work to do.
This is the true shame of the American right. They spend billions of dollars protecting their faith and values while supporting the very "progressive" idea of social darwinism.
For white anglo-saxon Protestant males. For everyone else, it was kind of ****ty.
For white anglo-saxon Protestant males. For everyone else, it was kind of ****ty.