In past couple of years, I've heard the gamut of political dialogue. Whether it be Ron Paul's "ABOLISH EVERYTHING", Sarah Palin's "If you come from a small town you're inherently better than evil city folk", or the Hannity/O'Reilly school of thought: "America is the greatest damn country on the planet and everything we do is right", I've heard it all. But who's right? We probably won't know in our lifetimes. But I want to examine the stance that America is the "greatest nation on the planet." Because the formative years of my political ideology have been during the Bush administration, I can honestly say that it made me cringe when anyone would say "America is the greatest" or anything like it. I learned in government class about Locke and Jefferson and how the rights of people in general are of the most paramount importance. And how it's even more important to remember those ideals when dealing with people that are diametrically opposed to your worldview. I always learned that that is what makes America great. That's why we're a "beacon of hope" for the world, because we are founded on such strong principles.
So why did it make me cringe when people would call America the greatest nation on Earth? I don't know, maybe the part where we completely shit on the Constitution and passed the USA Patriot Act? Or perhaps the detaining of hundreds of innocents at Guantanamo (Innocent until proven guilty). Or our utter disregard for the sovereignty of nations? All of these, combined with our stance that we were going to root out terrorism wherever it lived and foster democracy, conjures up images of an alcoholic United States (still drunk from irrational Cold War nationality and prejudices against anything other than our brand of democracy and capitalism), the battered wife (Iraq and the Middle East in general) that can't fight back except with the occasional cold meal or murder of a few hundred citizens, and the friends that notice but don't do anything about it for fear of losing the friendship (Most of the UN). I mean, when did we go from Franklin's "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." to the demise of habeas corpus? As an American, I felt isolated in the world; it's us against them; I felt that we were in fact NOT great at all because we refuse to listen to anyone and instead force our opinions on others.
Why all of a sudden does it feel like the clouds have parted and I can see sunlight? "My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy," said Barack Obama to the Muslim world in an interview with Dubai-based Al-Arabiya. (Of course, the Fox News headline reads "President Obama's administration may be placing other Middle East goals over the promotion of democracy in the region"... typical) Is this a breath of fresh air to anyone else? I feel like Harry Potter under the cupboard after 7 years of the Bush Doctrine being told I can fly away on a broomstick. Maybe the future isn't so bright as we're making it out to be (after all, we ARE in a very deep recession and there are still crazies out there that irrationally want us all dead) but isn't the outlook just breathtaking? We're going to start listening to Middle Easterners and try to work with them to solve their problems and our problems. I mean, I don't think Americans really care whether there's a Palestinian state or where all the lines are drawn. I think we care about the principle that everyone has rights, whether they call us infidels or not.
I think Team America may finally be dead, and it makes me smile.
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