The mind drifts to small, peaceful, liberal democracies, like Ireland, Costa Rica, Finland, Botswana, Uruguay, etc. etc. I wonder what people in these places think of the leaders large countries that do not respect their own people enough to submit to the requirements of law? Which countries are actually “great”?
I thought that the United States of America’s claim to greatness was based more on its respect for democracy and freedom than its sheer military power, economic size, or sales in popular culture worldwide?
Well, which is it?
How would JFK, Ronald Reagan, Eisenhower, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington answer this question?
How would the average American of 2017 and our current President answer this question?
How do you answer this question?
I’ll say a claim to greatness *would be* the strength, legitimacy and trustworthiness of its institutions; its concern and action for justice; and its creativity (economic and cultural). We were pretty good at two of those three (justice lagging, in my view). Now they’re all under threat.
I would equate greatness with morality .
“It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”
Hubert H. Humphrey
Greatness without morality lacks wholeheartedness
Gordon Wood’s landmark reappraisal of the American Founding was entitled ‘Empire of Liberty’. Obviously this phrase is a paradox, and there have always been times in our history when we have veered too close to the former at the expense of the latter. We have always been imperfect.
But the bargain was always that the rest of the world and our own people could accept these imperfections when they saw the greater good that usually resulted. I would rather be an America than a Canada or Ireland precisely since we are the only nation that is truly indispensable. And that comes straight from the lofty idealism of our founders-men all of our Presidents save this one have emulated. Instead he has revived our worst political tradition-Jacksonian populism and married it to European nationalism. A noxious combination that makes us merely another nationalist empire out for private gain at the expense of everyone else.
If I could live elsewhere (know the language and have the means to move and settle there), I’d live in France. Second choice would be Denmark. USA does not even make the top 10. And we are dispensable. If Trump wins a second term, China will have such a jump on us that instead of them being the world power in 50 years, it will be less than 10.