America: Where True Greatness Lives In the Past
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It’s time to acknowledge that the United States is failing in every way that matters.
Our educational system, once the envy of the world, is falling further and further behind that of northwestern Europe — and our Secretary of Education is a religious nut who wants to transfer taxpayer money from public education to vouchers for private religious schools.
Other countries have built high-speed intercity rail systems, while our starved-for-funds rail system relies on 70-year-old technology.
Our bridges and highways are quite literally falling apart, but there’s no money to fix those either. We incarcerate a higher percentage of our population than any other nation on Earth, but recidivism is still the rule; other countries, meanwhile, have successfully implemented the rehabilitation model.
We have yet to provide health care access to all Americans, and our current leadership is dismantling what meager protections were only recently implemented.
Related: When American Exceptionalism Is All About Loyalty To the Tribe
We have an antiquated and unworkable immigration system, and our chief executive rejected a bipartisan compromise plan so he could begin an unspeakably cruel program of forcibly separating children from parents that violate every human rights law and shreds every bit of common decency.
Our infant mortality rates are the worst in the developed world, and our literacy rates lag far behind as well. What would have been the largest particle accelerator in the world lies unfinished beneath the Texas-Oklahoma desert because Congress cut funding for it in the middle — and now the discoveries that would have been ours belong to CERN in Switzerland.
We remain the only country in the world not to adopt the Metric system, making us an anachronism — a throwback, really. And while we can boast a hugely oversized and overfinanced military, can you name the last major conflict in which we came away with a clear victory?
If you said World War II — which ended 73 years ago — you’d be correct. “American Exceptionalism” is a myth we teach to schoolchildren. We can begin the huge and arduous task of fixing America — or we can watch the remains of the empire collapse, as they are doing rapidly.
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Britain is in just as bad a shape, what with the Conservatives and their silly austerity programme. Our NHC has no money and seeing a doctor isn’t hard, unless it’s a specialist, which could take months, as well as any tests like a CT scan, also months. Trains are falling apart, wages are down, and the country is unhappy. Still those affected the most continue to vote for these buggers. Don’t get it.
The British Empire – love it or leave it! Well, guess what we did?
The right to complain is the cornerstone of America and fueled our revolution. I thought I had heard the last of the “love it or leave it” parasites years ago John Wayne and Martha Rae and those other Hollywood cowards but they’re still here making that same disgusting praise to the gods of war and authoritarianism.
I’ve been complaining about the growing ignorance and worse, the growing fake reality in our country. It’s not something confined to any party, but perhaps to do with American life as a party. All entertainment and escapism and fake news.
“the only country in the world not to adopt the metric system.” That alone sets America apart from the rest of the civilized world followed quickly by every single thing you said. Someone commented on Google Plus that perhaps those of us who don’t like our country should get out because of all the people who died in wars to give us freedom, and etc. Well, I am a veteran and spent the balance of my adult life in law enforcement. Guaranteed I did my part, and if I want to bitch about the state of the nation I’ve earned the right.
Britain usually follows where America leads….sounds like you’re following us now!!!
Excellent article old bean !