AMERICA RULES!

[El Pinko]

America rules!

Have your heard about this country?

It's the one I learned about in grade school - the one that rebuilt Europe through the Marshall Plan.

The one that gave Japan democracy, and redistributed its wealth to give it one of the lowest wealth inequality indexes in the world.

The one that taxed its richest citizen's income at up to 70% so that the working poor wouldn't have to pay, and so that returning GIs could buy affordable homes.

The one that used the New Deal to put depression-era America back to work.

The one that finally saw fit to desegregate its schools and outlaw discrimination in the workplace.

The one where wastefulness was seen as a vice and people scrimped and saved and reused and recycled MORE THAN TODAY (yes, when I was a kid, we used to get $1.25 for recycling our 6-packs of glass Coke bottles)

The one that was a primary founder of the UN and was a tireless campaigner for world peace and human rights.

The one where anyone who worked for a living was seen as worthy of respect, not just those with the most money and "bling".

The one that didn't maintain standing armies in peacetime, and would never attack other countries without a REALLY good reason.

A country where if you worked hard and play by the rules, you could make it to a reasonably comfortable life without fear of destitution.

It was an awesome country, and in the community I grew up in, it seemed real, even if it was never quite completely real.



But I believed in it, and I still believe in it. What will it take to make it real again?

A lot more than posting quips on an internet message board. Probably more than just "voting democrat" too...

[Zynx]

1. Indeed. For all our faults we have things to be proud of.

No country is perfect. I challenge anyone to find me a country with more than 100 years of history that has a spotless human rights record, a commendable foreign policy, egalitarian economic policy, etc.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Republic of Ireland?

[Zynx]

4. That might work, except abortion is illegal there.

Women's rights were not always the strongest there. They have a female president now, but the history is a little spotty.
Another thing is that due to Ireland's isolation, foreign policy is simple for them, but complicity toward IRA terrorism is a black mark on their history.

[sinkingfeeling]

8. Yeah, like complicity with those fools at Concord that ambushed the British is a black

mark on our history. And I didn't know Ireland was isolated.

[Zynx]

9. Since when has Ireland had to be a major player in any foreign policy decisions?

I also feel constrained to remind you that we are dealing with a country that has a population smaller than Wisconsin's by 1 million people.

I am referring to later IRA actions, not those that brought autonomy to the Republic.

[sinkingfeeling]

10. You asked for a country with "a commendable foreign policy". There were

groups in Ireland, just like within the USA, that supported the militiant IRA during the 1970's. However, the formal government of Ireland has opposed the IRA since the 1930's.

After a series of IRA bombings in England in 1939, the Dáil (the lower house of the Irish parliament) took stringent measures against the IRA, including provision for internment without trial. The IRA's activities against the British during World War II severely embarrassed the Irish government, which remained neutral.

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9042782/Irish-Republican-Army

[sinkingfeeling]

2. I, like you, used to believe in my country. However, I do not think that it will ever be 'real'

again. At least, not in my lifetime. I tell anybody who will listen that we now live in and support via our tax money, a fascist country. I believe that 'neo-conservatism' is as evil as fascism ever was. America is run by one thing: greed. There is a small minority that believe there are other ideals more valuable than money.

[GOPBasher]

5. I agree with most of that, except one sentence...

"The one that didn't maintain standing armies in peacetime, and would never attack other countries without a REALLY good reason."

We have used our military consistently throughout our history -- far, far more than just the major wars we read about. And it rarely had a good purpose.

WWI and WWII were just wars, but little else was, IMO.

However, the rest of your post I completely agree with.

[xchrom]

6. indeed we have consistently used our military throughout our history. nt

[El Pinko]

7. Much of this can be taken as an adolescent's view of America in the 80s...

...Even then we had Iran-Contra.

But the US did not maintain large standing armies in peacetime before WW2, despite our liberal use of force in invading countries like the Philippines, Hawaii, etc.

[lame54]

11. I saw you on T.V. last night...