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I'm a pretty left wing individual; that's pretty obvious most of the time. But I totally believe in 'American exceptionalism' as it's often called. Because it is exceptional. Compare the French Revolution to the American Revolution. Both were inspired by similar problems, but the US walked away a republic (the first fully modern republic; even at that time, Great Britain was moving away from monarchy to a more parliamentary system but there was still a monarch who had some actual power) and the French did too, but it didn't last. And in fairness, the original government established in the US also failed. The Articles of Confederation were scrapped for the more pragmatic Constitution, but even in failure, the US remained a republic while France essentially created a secular monarchy. Napoleon declared himself emperor a mere 5 years after the republic fully established.
America was not the first to industrialize. It wasn't the first to abolish slavery. It's lagging behind on the social democracy scale (assuming you believe that to be a good thing). But the country also started from scratch only a few centuries ago. Technically, the French Republic is younger than America's but it also had centuries upon centuries of culture and tradition established. The US did not. And for the first century, the US really didn't matter. Not big picture anyway; we weren't any more important than Sweden. We weren't compared to France or Britain or Spain. Not until we really showed our dominance.
A war that doesn't get nearly as much attention as it probably deserves is the Spanish American War. This was sort of the last 'glorious war' before WWI made warfare into a horror show, and it was at this time that America was among few republics. Russia and Germany both had emperors, whose titles (Czar and Kaiser respectively) both mean 'Caesar.' This was the late 1800s and Europe was mostly empires. Even the republics were technically empires. The monarch of Britain was the ruler of the English colonies, not the parliament. So when the Spanish American war started, it stood to reason that, from outside perspective, the Americans weren't going to fair too well; a baby republic vs an long standing monarchy? In the first naval battle of the war, the entire Spanish fleet was destroyed. In a day. The US had something like 6 casualties.
In light of all of this, and I could go, I'm not sure how reasonable it is to say American isn't, if nothing else, exceptional. There's something genuinely unique about the United States and say what you will about it now (and I have a lot to say), it's a country with preserving and admiring.
But saying a republic is not necessarily a democracy is absolutely correct!
That's my point,
The conservatives sheeps that keep on saying "We are not a democracy, we are a republic"
think that a country is one or the other.
it can be both, or just one.
And in those 200 years, other Democracies have came into existence, taken our formula and improved upon it.
I don't understand the "ends of the Earth" national pride some Americans feel. Like the country has never and can never do any wrong.
I'm in the middle. We have a really impressive and unique country with a lot to be proud of; we are the largest free country and the freest large country. However, that doesn't mean our laws, systems and institutions are the best in the world.
And when it comes to comparing us to other countries -- we can't be compared to Finland or Hong Kong. The size difference is so vast that it's pointless. But we should absolutely be comparing ourselves to Germany, Japan, Britain, France or Canada.
Only in America are the poor frequently fat, while in leftist paradises like North Korea the poor die of famine or are killed for disagreeing with big government.
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