Archives for September 2015

“American exceptionalism” is best defined as the belief that America’s values, political system, and history are unique among all other nations and worthy of universal admiration. Mostly employed by conservative Republicans, the phrase has been used as a bludgeon against any American who would dare think otherwise. Those not buying into this belief have been labeled unpatriotic; traitors to their country.

Unfortunately, today’s “American exceptionalism” is best defined in a negative sense. Americans are “exceptionally” behind other developed countries in many key metrics that define an advanced society. Let’s take a look:

Americans are “exceptionally” violent – As recently observed by President Obama, gun violence is much worse in the US than other advanced countries. Per population, we kill each other with guns at a rate 297x more than Japan, 49x more than France, 33x more than Israel.

Americans are “exceptionally” Stone Age – In a Michigan State University survey, only 14 percent of American adults thought that evolution was “definitely true,” while about a third firmly rejected the idea. In European countries, including Denmark, Sweden, and France, more than 80 percent of adults surveyed said they accepted the concept of evolution.

Americans suffer “exceptional” poverty -The United States ranks near the bottom of the pack of wealthy nations on the measure of child poverty, according to a recent UNICEF report. Nearly one third of U.S. children live in households with an income below 60 percent of the national median income. With 32.2 percent of children living below this line, the U.S. ranks 36th out of the 41 wealthy countries included in the UNICEF report.

Americans suffer “exceptional” income inequality – The U.S. is nearly the most wealth-unequal country in the world, according to Global Wealth Report 2013. Out of 141 countries, the U.S. has the 4th-highest degree of wealth inequality, trailing only Russia, Ukraine, and Lebanon.

Americans are “exceptionally” less educated – United States is ranked 12th among the world’s nations in the proportion of people between the ages of 25 and 34 who have college degrees. A recent International Student Assessment (PISA) showed that teenagers in the U.S. slipped from 25th to 31st in math since 2009; from 20th to 24th in science; and from 11th to 21st in reading, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Americans have “exceptionally” less health insurance – The United States is the only major country that doesn’t guarantee the right of health care to its citizens. The World Health Organization ranked American health care 37^th in the world, and in a recent study, the Commonwealth Fund ranked America’s health care system last on the basis of 21 indicative factors.

Perhaps Michael Moore best summed up “American exceptionalism”:

“This concept of American exceptionalism is the death of us. We know personally it does none of us any good walking around going “Yeah! Yeah!” That’s not the path to self-improvement. I mean, you can like yourself, and I do. I love the fact that I’m an American. I love this country. I love everything about what it means. But I also embrace the other side of it, and in doing so, it’s incumbent upon me as a citizen to want to help fix it.”

USA! USA! USA!

Image courtesy of vectorolie at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Moronmajority.com occasionally receives emails from readers. Below is an email received from Gary Zucker, a loyal follower of this blog. I’ve decided to reprint it in toto.

I recently returned from a vacation in Rome and Greece and was amazed at the complexity of the architecture and engineering of early Western civilization.

In our relatively young country we have surpassed others in scientific advancement, largely as a result of the vast contributions of immigrants who came here to escape poverty and to build better lives for their families despite the bigotry and hateful rhetoric that greeted each of these groups.

Curiously, we hear this rhetoric again today from many of the descendants of these earlier immigrants. Donald Trump’s statement that not all of the immigrants entering the country illegally are criminals and that there are “some good ones” is designed to appeal to the basest human emotions of bigotry and hate.

In truth, the overwhelming majority of these individuals are fleeing terrible conditions. It’s not true that there are some good ones but rather, there are some bad ones, as there have been with every other immigrant group.

Gary Zucker, East Meadow, NY

Republican presidential candidate, and former Baptist minister, Mike Huckabee, is preaching a new message these days … sedition. On ABC’s “This Week.” Huckabee told host George Stephanopoulos Christian fundamentalist Kim Davis need not obey all man-made laws. She needs to only obey a law “if it’s right.” The Supreme Court and the Constitution be damned!

This is not the first time Huckabee has openly called for the rejection of governmental authority. This past April, he directed all those seeking to join the military to do so only after Obama left office, calling the supposed persecution of Christians in the military “one of the great tragedies of our time.”

Sedition is defined as, “the crime of saying, writing, or doing something that encourages people to disobey their government,” Merriam-Webster. By preaching disobedience of the law, the going-nowhere-fast presidential candidate is nothing but a false patriot at best, and a loathsome traitor to his country at worst.

But isn’t this the way of all fundamentalist Christians? Follow only those prescripts or commandments in the Bible you agree with. It’s all right to pick and choose. And heck, if you sin, you can always confess those sins to the Man in the Sky. He will forgive you.

Picking and choosing which religious commands to follow is one thing. At worst you can be labeled a hypocrite. Deciding which governmental laws to follow makes you guilty of a crime and anyone advocating such a position, a traitor.

Huckabee is trying to make a name for himself among Evangelicals. Saying provocative things such as you can choose “which laws are right” only gets him media attention. All this controversy is a great start to the promotion of his new book, “Follow Only The Laws You Think Are Right (wing).”

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Photo | washingtontimes.com

When asked under what, or whose, authority she refused to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple, Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, answered, “under God’s authority.” Unfortunately God has yet to come to her aid as she prepares to spend her fifth night in jail for violating a court order.

US District Judge David Bunning ordered Davis detained until she agreed to do her job of issuing marriage licenses to all eligible couples. Davis has remained defiant, however. She told the judge, “To issue a marriage license which conflicts with God’s definition of marriage, with my name affixed to the certificate, would violate my conscience. It is not a light issue for me. It is a Heaven or Hell decision.”

As God did not appear to testify on Davis’ behalf, Judge Bunning had no choice but to send her to jail.

Kim Davis, whose supporters are making her out to be a martyr, is nothing more than your average, run-of-the-mill “Christian in name only.” She uses her religious beliefs, however misinformed they may be, to justify her bigotry. I am somewhat familiar with the Holy Book but I have yet to find that section where God defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Perhaps God offered a personal, oral definition to Davis?

If Christ’s message could be pared down to just a single word, that one word would be love. And with love flows forgiveness, assistance to the less fortunate and not judging others. We’ve all heard “Do not judge so that you will not be judged” Matthew 7:1. But very few understand the meaning of those words.

When Jesus said we should not judge lest we be judged also, he was not saying that we are to never judge another’s behavior. He was offering a caution to make sure that we are willing to be judged by the same standard of judgment. This verse is not a warning against judging someone’s action. It is a warning against self-deception and hypocrisy.

For a woman who has committed adultery, having been married four times, to claim her actions are meant to preserve the sanctity and dignity of marriage, is laughable, yet so predictable. She is absolutely the last person to cast that first stone or be held up as the poster child of traditional family values. Just another “Christian in name only.” Move on, nothing to see here.

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