# Discussion question: is The American Experiment a failure?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-question-is-the-american-experiment-a-failure/986036>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [June 24, 2023, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-question-is-the-american-experiment-a-failure/986036 "2023-06-24T13:09:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 203

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/discussion-question-is-the-american-experiment-a-failure/986036/203 "2023-06-29T12:49:00Z")

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You complain the question of debate (which I did not compose) is an absolute unanswerable mess, then you also complain when someone proposes an answer. I would say, as Chinese premier Zhou Enlai famously maybe said: “It’s too early to tell”.

We self-evidently have not arrived at Utopia (by anyone’s definition). We also have not (yet) been cast on the ash-heap of history. We always have been, are now, and shall continue to be, a work in process wobbling unsteadily into a better future.

As a Progressive myself I agree that we are performing far below what I believe is our current (much less maximum) potential. I don’t / won’t label that situation “failure” with all the finality that word entails. Less patient people might.

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