The thing is, the much bantered about rah, rah pro-American flag waver is pretty much a myth, at least in my experience. In the communities I’ve lived in (and I’ve lived in a lot, including inner-city distressed and suburban high-end), I’ve come across many more American apologists than flag wavers.
The one pocket of American society that does have a higher than acceptable degree of uber-patriotic pride is the lower socio-economic southern redneck. Those are the ones they always plaster in the media waving their American and confederate flags, and showing their rifles strapped to the back cabs of their pickup trucks. Guess what? Southern rednecks are a small segment of the population.
Tell me, how are they so much different than foreign working-class soccer hooligans who riot and rumble over their country’s, (or districts) soccer team supremacy? In my opinion, the soccer goons are loonier and more prone to physical violence than your typical American redneck. There is jerkish behavior at American football, baseball and basketball stadiums, but not nearly to the same degree as World Soccer. What would be the world’s perception of England, for example, if the media concentrated on rioting soccer fans and said, “these are typical Englishmen!”?
Most (not all) of the rednecks I come across are actually pretty nice people, and more filled with bluster than geared for action. Sure, they talk the big talk and tout the supremacy of American Apple Pie (euphemism for American culture)—but, they are just as likely to offer a slice of pie to any foreigner they come across than to throw it in their face. There are obviously exceptions, and in any country with a large population, the media pimps can easily find the idiots, plaster them on TV and scream—look, typical American! Most of the Americans I encounter are boring and pacifist. Soccer moms get under my skin, however. :mad:
I find more xenophobia in foreigners visiting from other countries…even nice countries, like Canada, or Australia, or New Zealand. They come over with a pre-conceived idea that Americans are racist, blusterous idiots. Some are; the vast majority aren’t.
I do believe America is exceptional—but, certainly not across the board. I’m able to focus on the many areas that America is a global bellwether (medical research, music, pop-culture, etc., etc.) while also realizing America fails in some other areas.
Want to know one area where America really fails? In the application of the American federal judicial system, that’s where. It’s magnificent in theory, but too many bad apples rolling around in the system makes it too overwhelmingly powerful, corrupt and dangerous. I saw this up close and personal. It sucks.
Years ago, I was accused of a federal crime that I did not commit (100% not guilty). My case lingered for 3 years. The right to a speedy trial only applies if you’re formally charged—I wasn’t. It went before the Grand Jury (they really would indict a ham sandwich), and what followed was three years of abusive “investigation.” The government engaged in an inordinate amount of dirty tricks and outright illegalities in my case. Mine was a clear case of wrongful prosecution by an overzealous assistant US prosecuting attorney and his FBI henchmen (far more intrusive than the SS).
In the end, the government dropped all charges against me. Did they do so because it was the *right *thing to do, given the overwhelming evidence of my innocence (or, in lawyer speak, “non-guilt”)? I highly doubt it. The prosecutor dropped it because he came finally to realize I wasn’t going to accept a plea bargain and he was outgunned by my legal team. Lawyers don’t like losses on their resume.
The 3-year investigation ruined my life and rendered me virtually destitute. The only things I didn’t lose were my kids and my sense of humor.
Think small claims and divorce attorneys charge exorbitant fees? Try hiring a white collar crime defense attorney. The second thing my first attorney said after, “you’re in for the ride of your life” was, “oh, by the way, you need to bring me a cashier’s check for $50,000 by next Wednesday and $20,000 for the two consultants we need.” He was my cheap lawyer.
The real expense came 9 months later when I was compelled to fire the first attorney and hire a team of bigger guns. Almost immediately after getting wind of my new attorneys, the prosecution chopped his plea bargain demand in half, to only $450k restitution, 18 months house arrest and revoking my professional license (that goes along with having a felony conviction). I was happy for the reduction in plea agreement demand, but doesn’t that strike you as somewhat unjust? Lady Liberty looks under her blindfold to see how much money your willing to throw against her, then acts accordingly.
If I had the balls to go to trial, they were seeking $8-million restitution and 8 to 10 in the pen. I made a little over 100k salary the year they started the investigation—I’d have to shake my piggy bank pretty hard to get the 8 mill. The American Judicial System bullies and intimidates. If it wants to make an example out of you, it will throw it’s nearly infinite resources against you, till you cry uncle.
Funny (but sadly true) Story: my attorney told me early on to assume everything in my house and office was bugged (the only thing the FBI can’t touch is something marked “attorney-client priveledge”). He told me to talk about nothing but sex with my wife, even in the bedroom. I thought he was being melodramatic. The day after my partner called me to discuss going on an offshore fishing trip (I still had some money then), my attorney called to tell me the AUSA called him and “joked” that I better not try to skip town to Cuba on my fishing trip. From that point on I was completely paranoid.
Almost 2 years later, the government dropped all pending charges against me (thanks to my insistence to my lawyers that they hand deliver a video and long document I wrote explaining the errors in interpretation the government was making in the evidence they accumulated), my lead attorney told me it was a miracle they dropped my case like they did. “That never happens, you’re very lucky!” Yeah, lucky, but flat broke. 20 years of life savings and assets down the tubes.
The government not only didn’t say they were sorry for putting me through the ringer, they neglected to pay back the hundreds of thousands of dollars they withheld from my business during the investigation. I asked my attorney if he could fight to get my money back. “You want to sue the government? Sure, we can do that, but you can’t afford to hire us…and there’s a good chance you’d lose.”
Then, after years of trying to rebound, my assets were once again completely depleted by a sociopathic ex-wife. When I filed for divorce, she said, *“you can keep the kids, I’m taking the money.” *And, she did just that. She outgunned me 3 divorce attorneys to my half-assed one.
Now my divorce attorney is suing me for the $25k I still owe him (he wasn’t even worth the $18k I did pay him). Creditors are hounding me for the $15k balance my ex stuck me with on a credit card she forged my name on (no, I can’t afford a lawyer to prove it) and my foreclosure/bankruptcy attorney overcharges me for piss-poor representation. And my daughters want me to send them to camp this summer. I will do so and I’ll miss them when their gone.
You can spend 12 years of your life earning 2 advanced degrees, work your ass off for decades, play by all the rules, and end up in debt. Welcome to America.
I now have the privilege, as I approach retirement age, to start all over again from scratch (well, a little below scratch). But, I’m not sweating it, because I live in the *Land of Opportunity. *
Here’s how I tally American Exceptionalism:
American Founding forefathers: exceptional
American Pop-culture: exceptional
American Music: exceptional
American Military Strength: exceptional
American Lawyers: maybe exceptional, but I wouldn’t shed a tear if I never saw another one.
American Universities and schools of medicine: exceptional
American healthcare costs: Not great, but not nearly as bad as most foreigners make it out to be. Medicare and Medicaid provide for excellent care for those most in need.
American medical researchers, hospitals and physicians: the world’s best. (my youngest daughter was born with a rare disorder called moyomoya. She had her second stroke at the age of 15 months leaving her paralyzed on the left side of her body. A surgeon at Boston Childrens Hospital quite literally saved her life performing an incredibly complicated brain revascularization procedure (he gave her a stuffed animal, too). I wouldn’t have trusted her care with any other surgeon or institution in the world).
American Federal Judicial System: bottom of the barrel.
Vindictive American Ex-spouses: pbbbbbbt!
I don’t buy all that crap about America being the fattest country, either. When I go the beach, sometimes I’m the fattest one there…Wait, that didn’t come out right. I’m not fat, just morbidly un-thin. What I mean is I see many buff people frolicking in the sand, with just a few beached whales interspersed. My theory is that the muscular mesomorphs and the few tubby whales skew the average American weight upwards. Foreign media types just point their cameras at the tubbies shopping at Wal-Mart and competing in pie-eating contests. That’s not fair.
I like America, but I don’t love it, not anymore. I love many things about America and I feel privileged to have been born here. I like most Americans, but a lot of them are jackasses. The terrain and climate variability is amazing. America is exceptional in many ways. It sometimes sucks, too.