Paul Krugman writes this today in the NYT:
“the weaknesses of American society, despite our national wealth, are obvious: Extreme inequality, including racial inequality on a scale whites can find hard to comprehend. A weak social safety net, including a unique failure among advanced countries to guarantee universal health care. Terrible work-life balance, with far less vacation and family time than a wealthy nation should have.
And a personal, informal observation: Trump is an extreme case, but we are a nation obsessed with the notion of winners and losers.”
“They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings. Steal a little and they throw you in jail. Steal a lot and then they make you king.” - Bob Dylan, 1983.
It's like he was looking into the future and saw Trump with his "America first!"-slogan being elected for President.
I love all of you. This is why I am here.
Here's hoping we get the political forum - that's why I joined. Reading the 'About us' and the comments from members regarding listening to each other and respect etc ... all bode well. Looking forward to inclusivity and fairness.
Those who listen to what others have to say. More choice can only be a good thing in general.
If he continues the way he started it can only be good news.
He did. He made sure Labour put somebody in prime position that was electable. Well, more electable. People now have an option that wasn't there before.
There's just a meanness is this world, as someone once said.
I think I feel more disheartened about the U.K. than I have ever felt. I just don't see a light at the end of the tunnel.
I guess I just fail to see the point in being proud of ashamed of a country. Or in loving or hating a country. The US have committed some of the worst attrocities in History and have produced some of the most beautiful things as well. Reality is so much more complex than these dichotomies...
I have always been very suspicious of patriotism.
That's because of who I am and the country I was born in. I am sure, the then about 70 million people who adored Hitler and were burning with "righteous" patriotism couldn't every one of them have been bad. And yet the most atrocious crimes came from that arrogant belief that Germany was the greatest country on earth.
So whenever someone talks about the greatest country on earth - and Americans are very fond of that phrase - I flinch and think, I hope you will never have to contemplate where that might lead - and has lead to in the past.
I am really aghast at some of the things Trump has said and done (and Johnson isn't far behind) - and there are all these smiling, flag waving people who cheer them on.
So, forgive me if this "I am proud to be an American, Spaniard, Italian", whatever, rings false in my ears. Every country has great achievements to its name in literature, philosophy, music and in many other fields. And in the name of every country great crimes have been committed - slavery anyone, the genocide of the American Indians, the Aborigials, the natives of all the African, Indian colonies and so on? Wars and war crimes?
I am sure it's ok to like all the good things your country offers you. You are proud of them? Which ones have you contributed?
In the end, you can only be proud of your own achievements.
It's OK, I'll get my coat