[Lothar]

AdT also said that the American form of government will prosper until the day that politicians realize that they can bribe the people with their own money. We have long since past that point and every day since, this country has become a little less special.

Generations are being taught that government can solve society's ills, when in fact, government is the root of many of those ills. Independence is being replaced with dependence. We are losing the edge that we once held in education, we are no longer the most productive nation in the world and we consume at excessive and unsustainable rates. Why? Because we are programmed to.

We are periodically fed a crisis scenario for which all of the proposed answers cost us our freedom and cripple the individual. We are watching the devolution of the great experiment that is happening because of a systematic effort to drive out the fundamental principles that made this nation exceptional.

jyl is correct. There is little value in self-congratulation or debate over whether we are, or are not, exceptional as a nation. Self analysis is pop-culture crap. We must "be" exceptional each day in our words and deeds, because each day is an opportunity to become unexceptional.