I’m Proud to be an American Tonight

Been a long journey, but there’s plenty left to come. My greatest hope is the enthusiasm engendered by the campaign doesn’t die with the campaign itself. The sort of energy I’ve seen at rallies I’ve attended and with the volunteers I’ve been around can be a powerful force, so I hope that spirit stays strong for a long time.

Had my doubts until the very last moment though, since I don’t fully understand the american way of thinking “globally) but I am very glad of the result even if they weren’t my country elections
After all, whatever America does affects everybody else…

Fuck you.

You’re finally proud of America because it elected the guy you like? So if 2% of the populace changed their minds America would still suck?

Do yourself and America a favor. Where ever you could be proud of for the rest of your adult life, go live there. Because sometimes you side will win in America and sometimes the other guys side will, but if you can’t be proud of her no matter who is the president is then this isn’t the place for you.

It’s just an election. The country is still made up of the same people yesterday as today. Or 5 years ago, or 10 years ago. Why weren’t you proud of America then?

The only regrets from me are, if all my friends who voted McCain would vote for Barr, it will be a huge impact to the republican party ….

Yet they voted for McCain because they are afraid Obama would win.

The 2 friend I did pull to vote for Barr didn’t go because they are busy at work. So over all I made no difference at this election

The only thing we need to worry about is now Democratics got both President and Senate, they will rot (already rotted) just like the republicans.

Unfortunately, my excitement today has been thoroughly tempered by the gay-marriage ban being approved in California. This is something I don’t see ever coming to my state of Massachusetts, thankfully, but it sets terrible precedent.

I don’t get this thing in the US, where if you’re not beaming with pride for your country no matter what it does, you’re a traitor. The people who feel this way, don’t they realize you’re speaking as an American who wants America to be as great as it can be? Blind loyalty is moronic and helps nobody.

The 2% argument is an interesting viewpoint, but it’s not a valid argument. It’s what actually happens the matters. If you murder somebody it doesn’t matter that with 2% less adrenalin in your system you wouldn’t have. You still murdered somebody. We fulfilled the promise of the nation’s founding ideals last night and that matters. You can toss demeaning statistics at this fact all you like but it still matters.

It is hard to understand why people don’t take pride in US. It is the world largest democracy, was the pillar that win over Nazi and Japanese invasions in WWII, raised from a colony to world’s super power, and has never failed to correct itself when it is wrong, the only non-African country with a black president.

US does has short comings, but its benefits is way over its harms. If people can’t see that, I don’t know what to say.

Buddha once said, what you see of the world is a reflection of yourself.

I think it’s a bit naive to say that America has never failed to correct itself when it is wrong. I love this country, but we’re not infallible, and there are certainly a lot of wrongs we’ve committed and are still committing that have yet to be addressed.

The US has been the largest contributor of aid (monetary and otherwise) to foreign countries for your entire adult life as well, but you were never proud of the US then? This pride hyperbole is ridiculous. You can be proud of the US because of some of the thing it does and be disappointed in others, but to say that just because voters elected someone you like you are proud for the first time is absurd.

Even from that graph, I have to say I am impressed by the American people. Government spending is spend others money, so the best representation is private spending.
US is the third largest on pre-capita, which if you think about the size of US and the diversity of its people (including new immigrates etc) is incredible. It will be a very interesting read to see which region/group of people are the most generous.

I know it’s boorish to post links, but this editorial from The New Republic struck a cord in me and seemed appropriate to the topic: http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=1945c380-a40f-44dd-b8d2-5f95e7017263

“has never failed to correct itself when it is wrong”

Like Matt, I too am incredibly proud to call myself an American right now, but the truth of the matter is that the above statement is not true. We *still* have not officially apologized for slavery or the stealing of Native lands and genocide of Native people. Hopefully that will change under the current President-elect.

No matter which nation you are from, there are a lot of wrong doings in the history. You can either bury yourself in shame or go forward and try to do something beneficial to the world.

You didn’t get what I meant. I didn’t say forget them, as history is your best teacher. America didn’t forget the horrible things that happened, nor did it cover it up like some other places. In the history book you can see clearly what America has done. You should reconcile with your past, and try to do the right things from now on, instead of fall in the shame and commit suicide.

Just an example, would you remove yourself from this land and return your home to the Indians? Weighting on the rights and wrongs of this nation, would you say that this nation has done much more rights than wrongs?

Americans during Vietnam war are trying to help the Vietnam government to fend off the communists. If US didn’t pull out so quickly, we might see another contrast of a free south Vietnam vs north Vietnam just as in Korea.

You also need to check your sources about US murder million people in Vietnam.

To me the failure is US failed to defend the south Vietnam people. In every war there will be causalities, the US has bombs that hurt their own too, so US are murders of their own as well.

There are a lot of unanswered questions. Should you be shamed for US not defending the free south Vietnam people? Should the US be shamed for the Chinese civilians it killed when it was helping china against Japanese? Should the US be shamed for the Philippians it killed during WWII? Should US be shamed for the civilians it killed in Nazi Germany?

The south Vietnam gov asked US for help, just as the south Korea government asked US for help. The only difference between the 2 is US stayed in Korea but abandoned Vietnam. I actually meet decedents of people from Vietnam in school, they are doing pretty well here, compare to their relatives back home.

So you don’t see any difference between north/south Korea? Do you think the Vietnamese refugees in US blame US for their situation? Do you think the Chinese/Philippians/German people hate the US because they are “murderers”?

Let’s ends here and reflect upon ourselves.

Wowpanda, great comments. It’s true, we were asked to help in Vietnam, and we were winning in Vietnam but the impeachment of Nixon happenend, and the Case-Church amendment was passed due to overwhelming public outcry. Because of that, Saigon fell and over 200K south vietnamese were put into “reducation camps” where they were tortured.

Matt, Should we hold Clifford Case and Frank Church responsible for the torture of 200,000 South Vietnamese officials?

However, I’m proud of America because a country that was founded by slavers has elected a man whom many rednecks in this country still look at as inferior by virtue of race.

How can you expect people to take you seriously when you make a statement like that? You clearly dislike the group of people you call rednecks. At least part of that dislike stems from their perceived attitude towards another group of people. You claim the moral high ground, but you demonstrate the same attitude towards them as they demonstrate towards the group they dislike. This makes you no different. So you’re not a racist. Congratulations. You’re still a bigot, and a hypocrite to boot.

I’ll be proud of this country when we can get past the red state / blue state bullshit that has torn us apart over the last decade. In that time I’ve had significantly more problems with people because of political disagreements than race differences.