America: Exceptionally Third World

from April 25, 2011: status post

A survey by the Public Religious Research Institute and the Brookings Institution found that 58 percent of Americans agree with the statement, “God has granted America a special role in human history.” Well, it all depends on how you define the word "special", doesn't it?

Keith B: Kind of like a national version of manifest destiny, isn't it? Ick.

Me: This American Exceptionalism thing makes me want to barf all over the Monroe Doctrine...

Diane:

It would at least be more honest to say, "A HUGE land mass full of vast and various natural resources has granted America a special role..." I'm with Keith - assuming, for the sake of argument only, that God is THERE, imagining that God is playing Simon Cowell to our American Idol performance (well, not Simon Cowell, but I'd have to actually WATCH the damn thing to tell you what God's part is) - anyway, it's definitely icky. Wait - I get it! - God is playing meany Simon Cowell to all those OTHER countries that are just second-rate compared to our beautiful, righteous American selves.

So what did the Native Americans ever do to Him to deserve this kind of s**t?

 

Me: I'd like to think that God gave a special role to ancient Rome, too...and maybe to, I dunno, Pol Pot. I tremble to think that I'll get some "America, love it or leave it" flak, but I am so sick of a bunch of pasty-faced hypocrites who can't spell telling me that we're more special than, say, Nigerians because we were "blessed" enough to be born in this "greatest nation on Earth" when, in fact, we face so many of the same problems that they face in Nigeria, we basically resemble a Third World country. (Like what? Massive corruption, ethnic tensions, pollution, incredibly huge gulf between rich and poor...typical, ahem, Third World problems. The veneer on our corruption is a little more genteel, that's all...but we're looking more like them all the time. De-fund the EPA? In 20 years, you'll be able to slice the air with a knife. Just like Lagos. )

And another thing...If I hear one more right/wing pundit or politician talk about "rent subsidies" and "food stamps" "entitlements" like they are to be had for the asking, as if one can just waltz into the Welfare Office with one's hand held out and receive the magic benefit card, I'll scream, or bite someone's head off, or perhaps commit mayhem. IF YOU ARE QUALIFIED FOR RENT SUBSIDIES YOU HAVE ABOUT AS MUCH CHANCE OF ACTUALLY BEING AWARDED THEM AS YOU DO OF WINNING THE LOTTERY. Pat Buchanan makes me sick.

 

Diane: You said it, Wendy, and more eloquently than I could, at this point. I have so HAD IT with the GOPTParty and their Cloud-Cuckoo-Land bulls**t that sometimes I just can't respond to it anymore - and I'm hardly EVER at a loss for words.