What has America done in your lifetime that you can actually be proud of?
I was trying to come up with an answer and I thought of two things that happened in my lifetime.
Technologically, America has given the world the personal computer and the Internet, and that is something to be immensely proud of.
Politically, one of our presidents, Jimmy Carter, made peace between Israel and Egypt, and that is something to be proud of too, because that peace still holds.
For the rest, our record is pretty dismal.
After Carter came Reagan, who brought us the Iran-Contra scandal, and spent us into debt. There are some neocon idiots who say Reagan won the Cold War against Russia, but that is total BS, because the Russian Empire crumbled from within without any help from us. Russia lost the Cold War; we didn’t win it.
After Reagan came Bush One, and what did he do for America to be proud of? I can’t think of a single thing, except that he once threw up on a Japanese official in Tokyo.
Then came Clinton, and what did he do? He let the genocide of Rwanda happen. Almost a million Rwandans were cut to pieces by machetes, and the one country and the one president who could’ve stopped the slaughter, America and Clinton, didn’t lift a finger.
Then came the America of Bush Two. Between Enron, Katrina, the Iraq War, Ford Motors losing $35m a day last year while Japanese car companies are building cars profitably on our soil, and the outsourcing of American jobs to other countries by our highly patriotic corporate elite, there is absolutely nothing to be proud of.
And much to be ashamed of. When 9/11 happened, the French said, “we are all Americans now,” and the people of Iran held candle-lit vigils for us. So what did we do with all that goodwill, and that huge moral opportunity? Did we lead the world into a new era of international cooperation and peace? Did we produce leaders like MLK or Mandela or Gandhi to make the world look up to us?
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Joe
You could move to Canada, I'd be proud of that. You're spinning the hell out of US history all for the sake of a GW Bush hit piece. You compare Hillary to Hitler while pondering whether to vote for her? We can't be proud of our astronauts because of the actions of one of them? Geesh! Get thee gone - Canada awaits you.
2 - JustOneMan
I'd really like for "Adam Ash" to be more than the dumb, dangerous joke that he has become. Blogcritics is scraping the barrel here, folks. One of our presidentral candiates John "You may be injured and not know it" Edards, just drove halfway across the country chasing an ambulance.
When we can't even be proud of our Dumbocratic controlled government. Isn't it time to do something about the state of the one nation on earth that always does the right thing while the rest of the world waits for us to save them and do the necessary dirty work?
Adam...good job I am glad that you still dont let history and facts get in the way of reality!
JOM
(Editor: Thanks in advance for not editing my comments - Adam opened the door...I just went in!)
3 - Arch Conservative
I was initially going to offer a lengthy response but this piece and the man who wrote are such a fucking joke that I won't waste my time.
No objectivity whatsoever. Just blind, insistent anti-Americanism.
4 - Clavos
America in my lifetime:
Along with its allies, won WWII.
An American, Jonas Salk, rid the world of the scourge of polio.
Another American (whom I personally know), Dr. Norman Borlaug, showed the world how to quadruple its wheat harvest, and won the Nobel Peace Prize for it.
An American, James Watson, And an Englishman, Francis Crick, unraveled the secret of DNA (with the help of work from Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins, both British.
And what about:
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Rachel Carson
Rosa Parks
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Douglas Macarthur
And on a different level:
Louis Armstrong
Ella Fitzgerald
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Bob Dylan
Steven Spielberg
Bill Gates
William Levitt
5 - Dave Nalle
Hell, to add to Clavos' list, Noam Chomsky's even an American, that ought to make Adam happy.
Dave
6 - Aku
It does not make Noam happy.
7 - zingzing
from reading the title of this, i really thought it was going to be a right-wing america love-in. but... it wasn't. really adam. this is a pretty negative view, even for you. we aren't a perfect country. sometimes i'm not very proud of the things we do. but i can divorce the things our politicians do from the things that we do. our internal politics might be a laugh as well, but at least we have made strides towards equality and recognizing our fellow citizens' humanity and rights.
plus, we made punk rock and hip hop. which are, you know, the most important things in the world, day to day.
8 - JustOneMan
Plus is a great place for pre-operative transexuals ...right Adam....
JOM
9 - Zedd
Adam
Like Clavos I can list a great deal more to be proud of in my lifetime. I would add to his list Malcolm X, and Dizzy Gillespie among others.
However you are dead on when describing us as of late. What is disheartening is that most Americans are so insecure that they will not take in or even ponder on that sort of criticism. Also your comments aren't predictable or rote enough. We are used to predictability and happy endings. You omitted to close in a flag waving, motto or even an epigram and cause us to well up with pride and shed a slight tear over our bemusing greatness. Your contribution would have been much better received.
You were too clear and certainly too pointed. You must learn to fuzzy things up. Its how its done in these parts. sigh!
What will most likely happen, if we follow the trend that we have started, is that we will put Giuliani in office. We will piss of the small part of the world that is still on our side and Rome will continue to crumble. We will continue to defend our ignorance while gleefully basking in the glory of our wonderfulness as the EU gets more powerful and developing nations develop and snicker at us.
America love it or leave it!!! tisk tisk.
10 - J.J. Hunsecker
"the Russian Empire crumbled from within without any help from us"
That's not accurate. Sure, it would have fallen anyway, but America did help hasten the dissent. From forcing them to spend so much in defense to keep up with us to products like blue jeans and rock and roll.
"Then came the America of Bush Two. Between Enron...Ford Motors losing $35m a day last year while Japanese car companies are building cars profitably on our soil, and the outsourcing of American jobs to other countries by our highly patriotic corporate elite..."
Sorry, but all these things would have happened under any President from either side.
"And what of us chumps unfortunate enough to be stuck inside the USA?"
While I'm not thrilled with the country's leadership, I do appreciate the ideals the country was founded on. If you feel so unfortunate to be here, why haven't you left? I'm not telling you to go, just wondering why stay if you think it's so bad. Walk the walk if you are going to talk the talk.
11 - Ruvy from Jerusalem
Noam Chomsky? You man that stinkin' bastard who trashes his homeland and his people and has the admiration of all the fools who can't tell a Nazi from a nutjob without a score-card (and we got a pack of them at Blog Critics)? That Noam Chomsky?
Keep the bastard. He's yours now. I'm waiting for the government that will revoke his Israeli ID and refuse the son of a bitch admittance here, and refuse his ashes (the shithole will probably want to be cremated, just like the goy he acts like). That's the kind f government that would make me proud to be an Israeli.
By the way, did I mention that I hate the son of a bitch?
PS. You Americans can have free of charge, Ilan Pape, Uri Avneri, the asshole who runs ICAHD (I forgot his name, but he was born and bred in Minnesota - stick him in a freezer where it's 40 below), Yossi Beilin, Ehud Olmert, Shimon Peres, Shulamit (bat zoná) Aloni, Amir Peretz, Aharon Barak, Ehud Barak, Dan Halutz, Stan Fisher (the putz who runs Israel Bank). There are a whole bunch more, but these shits sti(n)k out the most. Just make sure you never let them on Israel soil again. They contaminate the place too much.
12 - wdufkin
I suppose that you'd be proud to give even more than the 30 or 40 percent of the income you currently donate? If we'd all just contribute what?...70% to help the poor it would be a much better nation. United Socialist States of Amerika.
13 - Zedd
Adam
I might vote for Hillary, if she can stop herself from being the most calculating politician since Hitler
HILARITY!!!! I thought I was the only one who felt that way.
Agree about Edwards!. Would consider McCain.
Giuliani is a jerk! He started his campaign right after 911. What irks me AGAIN is how we are so gullible in this country. People who HATED him as mayor all of a sudden were all misty eyed saying that he galvanized the nation after 911. HOW STUPID!! What else was he going to do? Stay home and tell the media to go stuff themselves then go spit and stump on the rubble at ground zero? I mean REALLY!!
I suppose with GW sitting there reading his kindergarten book upside down, he pretty much looked like The Masked Marvel.
A month after 911 I told my friend "Oh goodness, he's running for President".
14 - moonraven
The one thing that stuck out in this piece for me was the whining phrase about being "stuck in the US".
Anyone with the courage of his or her convictions should have the brains to plan an exit from The Fortress.
I don't live there--mainly because I sure as hell am not proud of a country built on the genocide of my ancestors.
Tomorrow I have to fly from Mexico City to Seattle to take care of some family stuff, and let me tell you I am NOT looking forward to feeling the Ambience of Fear for 10 days.
I usually have to make the trip twice a year, and I think my breathing only becomes normal when I get on the last leg of the flight home to Mexico.
The US maybe wouldn't be such a hell hole if folks were not sitting on their asses doing nothing and making lists of folks who have done something they can feel proud of.
The folks who have done meritorious things don't need Conniw Mack clones taking credit for tham.
15 - George
Adam, you could research your facts a little better, but overall, you have only scratched the surface of what is wrong with the USA. The government is obviously nothing less then an organized crime operation, but the majority of the people that live here are idiots as well. And no, I don't think that this can be over stated. I would not have said this before living here every day for the last 44 years. I also would not have had quite the confidence to say it 10 years ago, but I learn more every day unlike the religiously and politically brainwashed. Proud of the USA? Blithering idiot is not the language I use to describe these people.
16 - Zedd
If you feel so unfortunate to be here, why haven't you left?
If you truly respect what was established by our founding fathers you will respect our criticism of ourselves. THAT is what is American. Being over sensitive keeps us from tweaking ourselves; fixing what is wrong with ourselves. We've gone dumb because we stopped seeing a need to be FIXED. The sixties scared us and now we are content, after Reagan, to offer sonnets, aphorisms and sayings, all bestowing our wonderfulness and might.
People come here because we SAY we are liberal. We tell the world that we are innovative and constantly changing for the best. We tell the world that we live in a land where we criticize ourselves and the government at will. When immigrants come they are met with endless nausiating requests to say how much they love America. Any observation that does not containing fawning and gushing is met with anger and the famous phrase, which you so eloquently stated "if you don't like it leave". Sigh!
It seems so needy and insecure.
17 - JustOneMan
Hey Rufus...I see the US welfare checks and foodstamps are late again this month...sorry..I guess thats why your pissed at us...I am sorry I just dont know how it feels to live in a welfare state where you have to depend on another country - the US - to feed and cloth you...
JOM
18 - Emry
It won't help the US all that much but it would improve this place a bit if Dave Vox Populi Nalle was booted off for fraud.
Ashamed of Vox Nalle.
Proud of the Dixie Chicks.
19 - Aku
"Between Enron, Katrina, the Iraq War, Ford Motors losing $35m a day last year while Japanese car companies are building cars profitably on our soil, and the outsourcing of American jobs to other countries by our highly patriotic corporate elite, there is absolutely nothing to be proud of."
Now how did Bush cause Ford to loose that type of money? Oh thats right, Ford has been run by fools who have put it into the crapper.
So Japanese companies should not be able to produce a profitable car? I espcially like contrasting this with the outsourcing statement, because this is outsourcing from the Japanese perspective. Perhaps the Japanese should stop outsourcing and take all those auto production jobs back to Japan.
And while I am on outsourcing, We should kick those Chinese and Indians to the curb and give the jobs to us Americans. What hypocracy. This is exactly the kind of nationalistic sentiment this piece rails aganst.
20 - J.J. Hunsecker
"If you truly respect what was established by our founding fathers you will respect our criticism of ourselves."
He's the one who said he was stuck here; I asked why. I never used that famous phrase and went out of my way to say that's not what I meant, so spare the misguided lecture.
When the criticism is based on an inaccurate premise, there's no reason to respect it.
21 - JustOneMan
Guys...Adam ASSh...has fooled everyone again with his gift of parodoxical writing...is it april 1st??? This has to be a joke right??
JOM
22 - Arch Conservative
I am proud that some of my fellow American BC posters have called out Adam Ash on his anti_American bullshit.
[Personal attack deleted]
23 - zingzing
and i'm proud of people who recognize adam's right to say whatever the fuck he pleases.
and same to archie. although he wouldn't extend the same credit to himself.
24 - Zedd
When the astronaut thing came out, I was like "WHAT NOW"!
Its all getting so nasty and weirder by the minute. Is it just time for Rome to fall? Has the denial about who we are combined with the dummying down eventually gotten to us? Has our international policy where it comes to poorer and less powerful nations finally become apparent to the world while we sit in our stupor? Are we not importing the right types of immigrants? Why are we so flat and unmotivated?
25 - Baronius
I'm proud of my church and my family. I'm proud of the guy that puts those tiny peanut butter cups in ice cream - that's pure genius! I'm proud Brett Favre, The Simpsons, and the pharmaceutical companies. I’m proud of the money we raised for tsunami relief.
I’d never thought to look to the government for a sense of pride. I’m proud of our government’s founding principles, and most of this administration’s policies, but it’s not my source of self-esteem. The thing that defines America is our freedom from our government. Everything about China is a result of the policies of the Chinese government; if you’re proud of China, you’re proud of Chinese policy. You can be proud of America no matter what party or person is in power, because the power they have is limited.