Are you still proud to be an American?

[Elwood P Dowd]

Poll question: Are you still proud to be an American?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQUY3DZNNeE

Please watch this video before you post.

Thanks,

Elwood

[Ichingcarpenter]

1. Citizen of the World

A Stranger in a Strange Land after
my families 290 years on this Continent.

I need that vote,

[BlooInBloo]

2. There's mommy love and there's grown-up love. The latter is still possible...

... even after the former is no longer tenable.

[Mind_your_head]

3. Not lately, no.

I would like to be though (just sayin') *sigh*

[robcon]

4. I love America.

It is the best country in the world.

[Elwood P Dowd]

6. Rob Conservative, the DUer who loves slave labor deals, makes his appearance.

Why do the mods let you hang around here?

[Skittles]

30. I love America

I just do not like what it has become

[HughBeaumont]

41. Do what I do -

Drop he who isn't gonna be named in the Red X Toilet. Advocates of Republican economic policies have no place in the Democratic party. NONE.

[Mind_your_head]

8. You're parroting the rhetoric nicely.....well done *pat on the head*

:eyes:

[Goodnevil]

11. Define what you mean by best

What criteria are you using to determine this? Also, why do both my wife and myself see 11:11 on the clock twice a day? Am I INSANE??? MUAHAHAHAHHA!

[GoneOffShore]

12. Oh yeah.

If you're not poor, with great health insurance and a sinecure job.

And you really don't care about anyone else.

And you're happy that the corporatists have

Shredded the Bill of Rights!!

Then it's a great country.

For anyone else, not so much.

Let's just find out something Rob - As your profile is disabled - (Why is that by the way? Hiding something?)

Where else have you lived Rob?

Visited anywhere besides Vegas and Disney?

Eaten anything but corporate food?

Give us all the benefit of your great experience of the world, that gives you the knowledge to declare this the "Best country in the world."

We're just dying to hear what you have to say.

[RedCappedBandit]

13. Yeah? in what way? Prove it.

[Selatius]

15. It's like saying I love to be a fucking redhead or blond. Nobody could help where they are born.

I find it funny people do say such things. I'm sure just as many Russians or Chinese say their country is the best in the world or people from any other country. It's just idiotic nationalism.

[TheWatcher]

24. Why are you wasting your time posting here then?

You need to get back to feeling good and soaking up American Idol.

[Squatch]

36. Maybe not "the greatest", but one of the greatest

otherwise, I'm with you.

[Blue_In_AK]

5. We just got back from seeing "Taxi to the Dark Side."

I'm not so sure I love America. I USED to love America. These days? :shrug:

[Solon]

7. Being proud to be an American makes as much sense as being proud to be white.

Its really fucking stupid, in other words. My parents fucked in this land, and my mom popped me out here, and I'm supposed to be magically proud of that?

[treestar]

38. I'm with you

Patriotism is nice but everyone is entitled to it. Why shouldn't the Finns be proud of Finland? The Australians of Australia? The Ugandans of Uganda? Who can judge that?

We can be proud of the U.S., but it has to be tempered with the fact that this should not give it rights to run over anyone else.

Conversely, if someone was born in Saudi Arabia, I do not think they should be ashamed of it, though I totally disapprove of their legal system. You're born where you are born and to whom you are born.

[Asgaya Dihi]

9. I love what we thought we were

and I loved that even when I learned we weren't as good as we claimed we still did better than most at trying to live up to a higher standard.

I don't love many of the things we've done even in recent history and I don't love the fact that we're not even trying to pretend to be better than that anymore. We've in large part as a nation got used to and accepted the idea that life isn't fair and we're going to do bad things, and we aren't that bothered by it anymore.

What I'm afraid of is that though we've never been the shining city on the hill we pretended we were we at least tried, and now that we're not trying anymore we're turning into something else entirely. Something we never used to be even when things went on which shouldn't have. Another word for creeping and eventual total corporate and State control might be fascism and that seems to apply too much to us these days, as an act in progress even if not yet complete.

[Mind_your_head]

21. No....a nation of refugees .....we know better

Some people who came here never intended to homogenize themselves into the great melting pot of America.....

I must think about this some more......

America is/was an un precedented opportunity, that I know.

[Asgaya Dihi]

25. I hope you're right

I'm afraid you're not though. Historically we were always fairly isolationist, if the leadership wanted to take us somewhere they had to sell it. After WWII things started to change and after decades of playing the armory of the world the military/industrial complex Eisenhower tried to warn us about is in fairly solid control and it's leaked into other aspects of our lives too. It changed who we are and on a fundamental level.

We've militarized our police almost beyond recognition, we've made drug war exceptions for everything from property seizure to personal searches and rights, and we've got the worlds largest private prison industry filled with the worlds largest number of prisoners, per capita and in raw terms. We're zero tolerance and take no crap from anyone about anything these days which is a simple no thought required way of looking at the world but it doesn't tend to work too well in the long run.

Not in the drug war, foreign relations, for who we are as a people nor for any of it. We aren't what we used to be. Decades of living like this and giving ever greater control in a wide variety of issues to our government in the name of freedom or safety has left us with little idea of who we are on the worlds stage if we aren't the tough guy and the worlds armory. We don't know how else to act, not at home or abroad, and not with any set of laws or actions. The punitive approach is the only one that really appeals to us and it's in both parties and most of our policies.

[Elwood P Dowd]

10. I notice the freepers are up late tonight. 5 votes for love it or leave it.

Did they watch the video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQUY3DZNNeE

[The Straight Story]

14. Yes I am

because it is not just a place, but an ideal.

I am not proud of all we have done - but I would rather be an American than a Saudi or Chinese :)

[tritsofme]

16. I've already had my two minutes of hate today.

No thanks.

[dubeskin]

17. I love America

It's not just a place. It represents much more. There have been atrocities committed by every nation and every people. To have a government that has not engaged in such tactics is impossible. America is the embodiment of everything that one dreams about. It's THE American Dream. The idea that you can come and be successful.

I'm not proud of George Bush. But I'm still proud to be an American that has contributed to society and made available, as much as I could possibly, the American Dream to everyone else in the world, so that they may come and bask in the glory which they would never have in their old country.

[Crunchy Frog]

18. Hell, I'm not even proud to be human.

[Matariki]

19. You need an "Other" category

Pride, or shame, based on nationality is makes no sense to me.

[Selatius]

20. Are you proud to be born with freckles? Or born with brown hair? You can't help where you're born.

Saying I'm proud to be an American is like saying I'm proud to be born into a family with hereditary cancer. It's just bullshit nationalism over a quirk of circumstance.

[Indenturedebtor]

28. Indeed being proud or ashamed of the past is silly

But one can be proud of the ideals that one ascribes to! I am ashamed of this Iraq war and every other stupid horrible thing we've done since I was able to vote.

[Fox Mulder]

22. How about "never was"?

[Mind_your_head]

23. NWO folks are hard at work tonight.

Just sayin' .....

[Pastiche423]

26. I'm not sure if I've ever been "proud"

to be an American. I do know that I have not be proud of the government America for decades.

[Indenturedebtor]

27. I can be proud of the ideals that many in the US stand for

I don't have to be proud of everything she's done, only of her potential moving forward.

And the video is wrong in parts, and leaves out the great things that America has done.

You can't only learn from the failures of the past, you must also learn from the successes. To beat ourselves up over what has been done is unproductive. We have to acknowledge them and take steps to ensure they never happen again. Every nation, and every people have committed attrocities (some larger than others)... what are we doing to move forward? Pointing the finger at the past isn't going to help anyone... it will just create more enemies and more isolation.

The left would do well I think to not stand on a soapbox and scream at the world "I'm holier than thou!" Because all that does is make people hate you and not want to listen to what you have to say.

How does it make you feel when you bring up socialized medicine and some moron screams "Pink blooded Commie pig, you damn commies killed millions with your commie nonsense and then you had to wait in line for bread and pink socks... and they only had one size!" Is that productive? No. Does it make you want to listen to the advantages of a free market system over complete socialism? No. Is it really relevant to solving the problems of the day? No.

So why do it?

Again we do have to learn from what our parents did, and what people are doing in our names now... in order to stop what's going on now and what might happen in the future. But this flagellation serves what purpose?

And BTW Israel wasn't created by America. America closed it's doors to Jews for the most part during the war which wound a lot of Jews u in Israel. Britain helped Jews return there after the war, adding to the Jews that were already there. Britain then helped Israel found a state, but it also gave all the weapons to the Palestinians who then started a war and lost. Not to sidetrack the thread but please try to link to historically accurate videos.

We have enough to beat ourselves up over without focusing on the sins of our fathers.

[ccharles000]

29. Yes

[robcon]

31. It's amazing how many DUers hate America.

And the attempted intimidation of anyone who, like me, loves America is disgusting.

[Goodnevil]

32. I don't think that love of America is disgusting

I do think that it is misguided and blind. On the other hand, people's definition of love is sometimes confused with devotion?

I don't judge, Robcon, I simply leave people to their own devices.

[TexasObserver]

37. There is a huge difference between loving America and being jingoistic.

You appear to be one who is jingoistic, which is not love, but pride.

One can love America and still see its significant faults and shortcomings.

I love America, but I'm not proud of America. I don't know how any rational person could be proud of what America as a nation has done the past several years. We don't need more mindless chest beating. Monkeys can do that. We need tough love, the kind that takes our country to task.

[Solon]

39. I don't hate America, that would be like hating a rock on the ground...

I just find platitudes such as saying you love that rock on the ground, or are proud of where you were born to be silly and illogical.

[bdamomma]

33. I am not "proud" to be an American probably "tolerate"

but then again, we are not everything we were told that we were or are, we have many skeletons in our closet, many skeletons were put there not by us. All the more reason to voice our dissent.

That video confirms that our government is not all powerful as it appears to portrays itself to be, but devious and deadly and anyone of us could be a victim of their sick domination.

Loved the country at one time, but not what it has become.

[RB TexLa]

34. Not watching any youtube stuff, but I've always been proud to be Irish in America. Which is what I

and my family are, not "Americans."

[Squatch]

35. I love this country

So much so, that I left my native country of Germany and then enlisted in the US Armed forces, where I've served for the past 11 years.

In my opinion, it is one of the greatest countries in the world, for better or worse.

[Goodnevil]

40. You're the second german military man

I've known (the other is my brother-in-law who was in love with this country. Germany has many problems right now and there is a great deal of resentment toward the "welfare class" in good ole' Deutschland.

I dunno, he's been changing his mind recently since he got out of the military...his health care is jacked.

Maybe the health care thing is what's really at the heart of all this discontentment? I know that it is for me.