Quote:
Originally Posted by sammyg2
Show of hands, everyone who doesn't think the US is exceptional?
OK everyone with their hands up, get the hell out.
The US became exceptional because of it's people. It's innovative, aggressive, "can do" attitude, the attitude that we can do it better that anyone else through hard work, creative thought, and strong work ethic.
We proved just that in WWII and we've been proving it ever since, DESPITE the obvious attempts from the left to tear down this great country.
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That's a very romanticized, simplistic view of history and the present, but it's a popular one.
The US was exceptional for many reasons. 250 years ago there were 4 million square miles of resources that could be had virtually free. The Europeans who came here to settle did not believe in the divine right of royalty - every man had the right of ownership of personal property. They adopted a more or less representative type of government. It took both unimaginable wealth for the taking, personal property rights, and representative government to make the US exceptional.
As the population grows and the free wealth is used up, as we need to do more with less and become more like the old world, we are learning just how "exceptional" we really are.