Is America the Greatest Country in the World? The new HBO series, The Newsroom, made some news itself when it debuted because of a scene in the first episode that shows the protagonist anchorman, played by Jeff Daniels, deliver a biting soliloquy on American decline. A YouTube video of the scene, which bills itself as the “most honest three and a half minutes of television ever,” has garnered more than one million Internet hits. In short, Daniels, sitting on a panel, is asked by an earnest young woman why America is the greatest country in the world. After a tirade of statistics to rebut the poor woman, Daniels’ character concludes: “The first step in solving any problem is to recognize there is one. America is not the greatest country in the world anymore.” It’s no wonder that the YouTube alone has generated a million views. The soliloquy is bipartisan and strikes a chord with many Americans concerned about the contrast between their youthful vision of America’s greatness and its present day economic malaise. Many Americans may agree with President Obama’s statement, “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.” While I believe that Americans share a sense of pride, nationalism and love for their country, they may not necessarily think about it every second of the day. I think we are an exceptional country and I am eternally thankful that I was lucky enough to be born here and express my passion about the greatness of this nation. I disagree fully with the often-misstated statistics that suggest we are just another declining country. The statistics quoted are sheer bull. Take for example the statistics that justified the passage of the Obamacare. These statistics suggest that the American healthcare system is worse off than other countries because of poor infant mortality and longevity rates. While this may be true, those statistics have nothing to do with our healthcare system and everything to do with our lifestyle. Eating right and exercising daily are what improve these rates, not government mandated healthcare. But when it comes to treating and curing life-threatening diseases, America is the best in the world proved in part by the fact that most of the world’s wealthy travel here for treatment. Critics of American exceptionalism next attack our education system, calling it a complete failure. Yes, the numbers are scary if you look at overall math and science scores compared to many other countries. But consider two facts. First, we have a diverse and extremely large population, and the highlighted statistics are often average scores that mask the huge number of high achievers. Our pre-college education system has challenges, yet citizens of other nations increasingly want their children educated in the United States. More, we have some of the world’s best universities, and we see Chinese government officials strive to send their children to U.S. schools at increasingly younger ages. Indeed, China sends 160,000 of their youth to American schools. Second, it’s not the basics or rote learning that makes an American education valuable: it’s the culture of innovation that we imbue. We may not be the best at basics, but we are phenomenal at teaching students to challenge the status quo. Our First Amendment, our immigrant and diverse culture, our “can-do” attitude and our entrepreneurial spirit come together to produce a nation of innovators. We lead the world in Internet innovation, music, movies, biotech and many other technological fields that require out-of-the-box thinking. From Apple to DreamWorks Studios, from Amazon to Zynga, we are the world’s innovators. As I travel the world and speak about these issues I am increasingly aware that the government of virtually every other country in the world wants their citizens to be as innovative as Americans. We certainly have problems, and we must address them. Our politicians and even our voters are failing to deal with the big issues. We focus on meaningless political squabbles as the cost and reality of rapidly growing entitlements threaten to send us into an economic tailspin. We are living today rather than investing for tomorrow. And we are raising youth who may not understand the values that we once shared as a nation. However, I am passionate that our nation was, still is and can remain the best in world. We not only owe it to our children to act to preserve our greatness, but we must also honor those who have served and risked their life and limb in our Armed Forces to preserve our nation and its freedoms. We are a beacon for the world. Our challenge is not to lament our decline or even celebrate our exceptionalism; it is to come together with true leadership that can unite us as we sacrifice to preserve and expand our greatness.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 11:05:20 +0000
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