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No apology needed. Frankly, in my time on this Earth, the last few months have taught me more about my country than I'd have ever otherwise known. A guy shoots 3 cops because he's afraid Obama's going to take away his guns. A guy shoots a national guard recruiter because he heard from Limbaugh that Obama was creating FEMA concentration camps. A guy shoots a black security guard at a Holocaust memorial Museum. A guy shoots an abortion doctor in the name of the "pro life" movement.
Fast forward to August, apparently Americorp is a secret Obama indoctrination campaign. Fights break out at healthcare town halls. Swastikas are sprayed on a black congressman's office. Men show up at town hall meetings, including one for the president, with guns and knives. One of them with a sign reading "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants". A guy distributes posters saying "Kill all Marxists, foreign and domestic". People show up at town halls with lynched effigies of congressmen and women. And all the while, prominent right wing leaders, apparently having not learned that many people are taking jokes about killing seriously, fuel the fire by claiming that Obama wants to kill old people and children, joking about lynching congressmen and women, joking about poisoning the Speaker of the House, etc.
And this is just the first 6 months and the first big issue!
To say nothing of the corporate grip on our political dialogue or the unfettered Darwinism of our mainstream social policy. I knew I was on the margins before, but these days I really don't feel like I'm in the same library as the mainstream American, let alone the same page.
So for someone else, this could be the greatest country in the world. I'm not seeing it, though.
I don't even know which is worse: having George W. Bush as president with happy Republicans, or having Obama as president with angry Republicans. I like Obama and I think he will move America in a positive direction, even though it will take time, but all the angry Republicans are what is making America a miserable place to live (and I don't even live there, it is just what I see on the news). One of my Japanese friends was shocked when I told her that there is a news network that all they do is talk bad about the current president (talking about Fox News, but I'm sure you already figured that).
I considered voting on the poll, but I have no personal experience of other countries so can not make a truly informed opinion.
I made a kind-of chart once, based on several factors, and in that the US was one of the 15 or 20 best countries. (I did this for my amusement, yes I'm weird) UNDP and other charts would also seem to indicate we're the best among nations with over 130 million people. Considering Japan's lower on "happy life years" I'm even tempted to say it's possible we're the best nation with over 35 million people. And that's as boosterish as I get. However in my online experience this is way too boosterish and so I get labeled as overly patriotic at times. (Which I find amusing as I don't think the American Revolution was necessarily a good idea, etc)
Would you say that the United States is the best country in the world in a general sense?
Might be.
But this doesn't fall into the general guidelines for posting in the city vs city room. Sorry.
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