America is just another country with another flag.

[white_wolf]

I swear I'm listening to Romney talk about how great America is and how we are an exceptional nation, and all that stuff. When will these people learn that their simplistic black and white worldview does not work in the real world? I'm sorry, Romney, but America is just another nation with another flag, we are not special or better than any other country in the world.

[FiveGoodMen]

1. We get worse the more we say we're better.

[givemebackmycountry]

2. Well we can blow every inch of the planet into oblivion, so there is that.

But that hardly makes us exceptional.
An exceptional asshole maybe but that's about it.

I hate that Chris Matthews/MSNBC commercial where he says "American Exceptionalism"
Just because Barack Obama is our President.
That's the way it's SUPPOSED to be in a free and Democratic country.
ANY-ONE who is an American citizen can grow up to be President right?
Or did I miss something?

Ain't nothing exceptional about that.
What do we want a cookie for doing what is expected of us?

[immoderate]

3. We have become exceptionally mediocre.

Places where we used to lead, we're consistently in the middle. Quality of life, education, social mobility, life expectancy, and infant mortality are categories we excelled in and unknown to most Americans, we have slid down the list.

We're extolling past glory, and sailing to oblivion.

Since I can remember, I have never made sense out of national borders. An arbitrary method of dividing people.

--imm

[Angry Dragon]

4. A country is judged by the way it treats the people at the bottom

and not by how much the people at the top have.........

[Obamanaut]

5. Opinions do vary. nt

[PETRUS]

6. What's wrong with uncritical patriotism?

It worked really well for some Germans for a while.

[A HERETIC I AM]

40. "Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious."

- Oscar Wilde

[Fool Count]

48. "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel"

- Samuel Johnson, 1774

[Throd]

7. The irony police have just maced themselves in the face and retreated in the stupidity of your post.

You really think that The United States of America (for better or worse or somewhere between) is not special? The USA is interchangeable with Guyana or Luxembourg?

[Logical]

8. You think we are better than any other country? Really? Wake up!

[Throd]

12. Where did I say better?

[white_wolf]

9. The U.S. is not special.

We are a country like any other. We may have had a period of prosperity, but this myth that we are somehow exceptional and meant to lead the world is ridiculous.

[Throd]

14. Yes it is.

[Logical]

15. LOL......better than Canada? The UK? Australia? You don't get it.....

The GOP thinks we are the BEST country in the world.
All this post is saying is that we are not. We might be above average but we are no better than many others.
Jesus, what is your deal?

[Throd]

16. Once again, "special" doesn't equal "better".

[white_wolf]

18. Okay, what makes America special, in your opinion?

[Throd]

19. That at this time in history the USA is the international power.

You don't have to like it.

[white_wolf]

21. That doesn't make the U.S. special, certainly not in the way Romney meant it.

The U.S. is not chosen by God as Romney seems to think. We are not some bastion of freedom and democracy. We are nothing more than an empire in decline. The sooner we as a country accept that the better.

[Throd]

22. Fuck Romney sideways.

Fuck defeatism too.

[white_wolf]

23. It's not defeatism to accept reality.

America has to accept the fact that it needs to give up the empire. Once it does that, then perhaps we can begin to change it for the better.

[Throd]

27. Be careful what you wish for

The next empire might be puppies and rainbows. Or not.

[DocMac]

47. I'm pretty sure we have enough nukes

to defend ourselves from the puppy and rainbow empire.

[Withywindle]

33. The idea of being an empire in decline doesn't sound that bad to me.

Seems like a lot of the sadder-but-wiser former imperial powers (England, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Germany, etc.) do a much better job now of taking care of their citizens than we do.

Let's spend less money and energy on forcing ourselves and our military presence and our imperial greed all over the world, and focus on the people we have now on the land where we live.

If that means we're not "special" anymore, well, fine. I fail to see what's really so "special" about us anyway. We haven't really been #1 in anything worthwhile since, when, the 60s?

[themadstork]

29. How does that make us special?

Powers come and go. We are hardly the first country to amass immense military strength.

[Throd]

31. You don't really understand why the USA is special on November 22, 2011?

I think some people are not understanding my use of the word "special".

It doesn't mean inherently better. 1861 through 1865 was a special time in American history.

From an historical context, the USA is a special country in 2011 in a way most countries are not.

The bubonic plague was special too. I do not want to see a repeat.

[themadstork]

34. Meh. Your use of the word special

is not really the one designated in the OP.

It's supposed to be something about us inherently being the "good guys," the guys the rest of the world can rely on to keep the peace, the morally pure.

Unless you think that politicians' claims about our specialness are strictly limited to the number of guns we have.

[white_wolf]

30. So based on your premise, was the Soviet Union special?

They were once a great military power.

[Throd]

32. Absolutely.

[Ignis]

44. Reagan was a big fan of American Exceptionalism, too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism

"City on a Hill?" Maybe at the time of the Revolution. Now we're just another plutocracy.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. So was Rome. Did I mention Spain? Oh yes England....

All empires go through that phase. It too shall pass

[Throd]

13. And they were all special. That is why you cite them.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. No, I cite them because that was an imperial phase

This divine destiny is an imperial trait. I could include the first Russian Empire, the USSR and of course China in the example.

None was chosen by Zeus, Christ or Bhudha.

[Throd]

20. And that imperial phase made them special

In contrast, Moldova, as it is today, is not special.

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. Well the us is an empire in decline

Choices, go into that night in an ordered way, or not

By the way I guess you love empires...me, not so much.

But we're an ex-empire actually.

[Throd]

26. Empires are what they are, good and bad

I am reminded of the scene from "The Life of Brian".

"What did the Romans ever do for us"?

[nadinbrzezinski]

35. And they rise and fall

we are on the downward side.

[Lionessa]

11. Unfortunately, I've heard Dems say the exact same thing, including Obama.

Seems to be the "patriotic" terminology of the day. "American exceptionalism," yuck, almost as bad as "Homeland security."

[Downwinder]

24. I really have never understood people covering up by wrapping

themselves in a flag. It becomes so obvious. Is that where the expression for flagging something comes from?

[themadstork]

28. I like how House put it a few weeks ago -

"loyalty to real estate."

I've never understood nationalism. "I was born here, so hurrrrr it must be the best thing ever! EVER!"

[Zax2me]

36. we are not special or better than any other country in the world?

I've tried to find a way around dumb here.
Impossible.
Even those who hate everything about this country knows the US is a world leader.
Have a nice time in Haiti or any other interchangeable nation you choose to visit in your fantasy world of all is equal.

[nadinbrzezinski]

37. Actually we are 36 in health outcomes

38 in freedom of press ( and going down I suspect)

No we are not number one and comparing to the poorest countryin the hemisphere is a good case of a red herring.

[RZM]

42. And where did you get this 38th in Press Freedom ranking?

Freedom House puts us tied for 17th. Reporters without borders puts us at 20th.

http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=251&year=2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index

[nadinbrzezinski]

43. Oh my ...

So it is much better since it is 17...per your stats

Okie dokie...

We are still not number one and the OAS did issue a note of concern yesterday. The kind we usually push for.

Yup, we are number one....:sarcasm:

And yes, after the games with occupy it's going down. Live with it.

[RZM]

46. They aren't my stats. They were complied by RWB and Freedom House

And yes, I'd say it is pretty good. Top 10 percent isn't bad, if you ask me. Not everybody can be Finland ;)

I don't think it will change much by next year. Numbers are going down overall around the world though.

[apocalypsehow]

38. 1972 called. It wants it's "how we lost to Richard Nixon" talking point back. n/t.

[themadstork]

39. The truth called,

blah blah blah, end joke.

[raccoon]

41. It's just the way it is with people who talk about how wonderful their marriage is--

IME, when they feel that they have to say that, it's pretty bad.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

45. "Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's brains....

"Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead." - Arundhati Roy