So next time you’re at a Donald Trump rally (seeing as he’s running for President of the United States in 2016), ask him this one simple question:
If America isn’t the greatest country in the world, who is?
I would argue, and I think it’s a pretty easy argument to make, that in virtually all the ways we measure success as a country, we are indeed “great.” And I’d go one step further and say that, at this moment in history, we remain the world’s greatest country. To live in, to work in, to express oneself freely, to practice whatever religion you want (or, increasingly, no religion at all).
I find it odd that people resonate with the message that America is no longer a great country. Who is? China? Really?!? Russia? Umm, no. The UK? I love Brits, but there’s a lot more things wrong in Britain than here. Is Canada the world’s greatest country??
Seriously, I just don’t get it. As a statement of fact, it makes no sense whatsoever. And it suggests an underlying inferiority complex. Which you get into even more when you listen to Trump’s campaign speeches.
We have the world’s greatest military that’s been modernized and reorganized to better respond to the kinds of wars we’re now fighting. If you combined the next 8 largest militaries in the world, it still wouldn’t be large or good enough to take on America’s military. Yet Trump claims — with a straight face, no less — that it is in shambles and needs even more money thrown at it. (This despite the fact that we spend more on our military than any other nation on earth.)
He wants to build a wall along our Southern border to keep out illegal immigrants, turning America into a place with walls. Reminds me of Berlin in the 1960s. Or a prison. This is your thoughtful, nuanced answer to America’s immigration concerns? Remember, too, that immigrants take all the jobs Americans don’t want and no longer do… much of the food service industry and agricultural industry — who do you think works the fields these days!? — is done by immigrants. If there was an easy way for immigrants to come into the country just to do these jobs, I’m pretty sure they’d take it. But since we put up so many paperwork barriers to allow for proper legal immigration from Mexico, we have an illegal immigration problem.
America is great. If you’re a citizen of these United States and think otherwise, please point me to the data — not hyperbole or fear-mongering — that demonstrates how bad America is as a country. I’d love to hear it.
