But we are going to go ahead and overcome the mindset that created Trump, and for that matter Bush, and for that matter blunt and potentials of both Clinton and Obama, we're going to really need to stop talking about this leader of the free world bit.
The ugly truth is, what Americans generally didn't enjoy way certain freedoms that other countries and the rest of the world did not, we have to realize that there never really was much of a "free world" nor did we lead it much. Before Angela Merkel decide to go ahead and get austerity crazy, which did start the ball rolling that destroyed the European Union, most of Europe was a lot more free from want than we were. This is not just about medical care, though it certainly includes it; but many things from a good transportation grid higher education or made much more affordable than they ever were in America. It wasn't as if America could not of had those things, after all part of the reason Europe had those things is because America did something called a Marshall plan where they realized that one of the best ways to actually fight the communist was to actually go ahead and give money and support to people actually build an infrastructure. By the same token, that did not mean that we were leaving anything, because other nations in both Western Europe and Latin America decided that they want to take a direction that was different than the one the United States did.
Now, I've heard some communists say that Cuba and the USSR were in some ways more free because people will more free from want. There's some truth to that but it hides a deadly detail. The fact that unless you actually allow people to freely express opinions and ensure a standard set of human rights which includes both freedom to and freedom from, you are not complete. We need freedom to worship but we also need freedom from being forced to worship. We need freedom to travel, but we also need the freedom that having a stable economy provides, we don't feel that you have to go to the big city in order to make a living. Sadly a lot of the story of the 20th century involves a lot of people fighting over which set of rights is more important than the others with the end result that no rights were really that well protected. In this very election, you had people arguing about whether or not it was more important to safeguard economic rights or social rights, as if you could actually sustain one without the other. Oh yes, shop did when because of bigotry, and he certainly one because of dirty tricks, for which I hope to hear that James Comey either winds up dying in Leavenworth, or squeals enough that those who were helping him do. However, if we know that we are going to have everything but the kitchen sink thrown at us, we cannot allow basic ideas about what being a Democrat is to get undermine from within, and yes both those who supported Bernie and those who supported Hillary wound up overlooking that in the big picture. Not all, but way too many did.
Arrogance will ruin you every time, it is the most banal addiction there is. Part of that arrogance is this whole idea but somehow we are the city upon the hill, the leader of the free world. Now granted, and one of God's cruel jokes (the sort that make atheism easy to accept) we are now being left a world where oddly enough, the alternatives to America don't look that good.
Yes China, you build wonderful things, and the magnetic trains are amazing. You managed to pull 70 million people out of poverty, that's the size of an average European nation, like France or Germany. Consider that the full amount of African Americans in the United States equals 45 million, and the scope of your achievement is very clear. However, you have employment standards that are actually worse than the United States, which is absolutely nothing to be proud of. We see you wearing gas masks, and we also know that as nice as your Internet is, it is heavily spied upon, and people watch and even the fact that credit rating based on what they think is a threat. We also know that the reason why cup needs is because, ironically enough, the last communist nation uses low wages and bad safety standards as a selling point.
As far as Russia goes, if you are guilty of half the stuff you were accused of, well played. However, tthat does not change the fact that you are basically not the idealistic Soviets your parents were, but a haven for some of the most vile right-wing thought in the world. Yes the world respects your guns, and you have the ability to hide out in your winter waste, which you've done for time Memorial whenever an invader comes. That does not mean you cannot get beat up by the goons, that does not mean you have a decent economy, especially since yours is based entirely on oil, which means that as my oil runs out you, like many of the Arab states you tend to dislike so much, will be stuck wondering what to do, your fall back is having a bunch of people the people up, but worse, spying each other,, in short all of the old sins of USSR without any of that egalitarian brotherhood crap.
And sadly,, there was a time Western Europe really did seem like the light of the world. You guys traded the European Union for a bunch of small,, nationalistic little fiefdoms. The way I know that the disease has really gotten into your bones will be if Marine Le Pen wins next year. It is one thing for Britain to leave, as there were no small amount of pseudo-intellectuals who wanted to go ahead and wreck tthe European Union because they still want to cling to an empire where the sun never set. France however, used to be the nation that many Americans wished for nation was more like. Time will tell, but it doesn't look good.
So, what was the point of me trashing the other rivals to power after saying we need to get over all this leader of the free world nonsense. The point is that it's not a very free world anymore, anywhere, and that even the nations that are like us, and even the nations but did somethings better than us, or all caught up political quagmire, which is brought on by an economic quagmire, which is brought on by a bunch of elites realizing that their control over everything is slipping and that they need some way to go ahead and pull back the curtain before people see them as the naked little emperors and empresses they are. In short while the idea of a nation and a culture may be of some use to us, we better be prepared to use our flags for blankets in the winter to come. If any nations come out of this, it will be the ones that learn to go ahead and adapt to the new world, or perhaps simply drop illusions about themselves and finally start living the world that always was.
For what it is worth, I am very low to hear way some reporters are angry at Trump because he basically did not talk about things that would make him a leader of the free world. Most of these people who say it are the same people who still don't understand that they got the whole forecast of 2016 completely wrong. I myself am a lot less concerned about is leading a bunch of people that frankly may never of what our leadership by could certainly see myself working as teammates of the rest of world as we deal both at home and globally with the elite that frankly just considers all nations places to own a mansion and jet to on occasion. Hold class consciousness if you wish, but my free world is reading a bunch of things on DU and in the Guardian and on other places why realize that no I'm not the only one who thinks like I do and no I'm not the only one that thinks local class everywhere easy for clueless at best profoundly full of crap at worst.
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