Some people have claimed that America “was never that great” or something similar. These include New York governor Andrew Cuomo. We’ve seen so-called communist groups on the media chanting things like “America never was a great country.”
We can’t help but wonder where these people are coming from. Their statements seem to defy logic and reality. So let’s examine that.
This simple blog post isn’t intended to develop a major comprehensive treatise on the subject, but to briefly provide what we think is the most reasonable, logical point of view.
To examine the situation, the first step is: How does one define great in this sense?
We limit ourselves to the national government itself, because that is usually the basics of how nations are ruled internally and through which they primarily interact with other nations.
There can be many different aspects to greatness.
Some leaders in history have conquered large areas of the world. Does it refer to size of territory ruled?
Does great mean a powerful nation — a nation which can have a significant influence in and/or on the world, whether economic, military, political, or some other way?
Does it mean the nation has some internal controls for consistency or self-maintenance, such as rules or laws and the enforcement capability of those rules or laws?
There are many definitions for great in dictionaries. That which seems to best apply here to nations or territories is something like: having certain characteristics (such as ability, standards, power, or dominance) considerably above the normal or average.
By that definition, America is a great country.
How can anyone not see that America fits rather well in this definition? Maybe those who are ignorant (whether lack of some type of knowledge or history), blinded by propaganda, brainwashing, inability to reason or think rationally, or something else have a problem with it.
But to complete a basic evaluation of America or any other country, we need to think about something else: Value judgments.
A value judgment is an assessment of what one thinks or judges as good or bad.
America is great, according to the definition above, but that doesn’t place a value judgment on it — good or bad.
In evaluating America, people often mix or combine greatness and value judgment into one criterion. We think it better to try and separate them for this purpose.
Is America good or bad? Good and bad can be a relative thing.
So how do we evaluate America on that basis?
America was the first in modern times to declare freedom and certain inalienable rights for its people. Other nations have since attempted to copy its ideals.
America is a nation which respects and provides its citizens the greatest level of freedoms to pursue activities and opportunities.
America is a nation which provides for or allows different cultures.
America’s educational institutions have been leaders in research and developing technology. Students from around the world want to come here to study.
America has a reputation for promoting liberty, freedom, and economic development around the world while other nations demand submission.
People want to come here to live. The most obvious of these currently are the migrations from Mexico and Central America, but many people from elsewhere around the world also want to come here. That indicates they view America as good — or at least better than where they are or were. If America was viewed as not so good, why would these people want to come here?
America is a country which has chosen to exercise its powers beyond its borders. Some may judge these exercises as good, some bad. It depends on the situation.
Looking at the world today, what would it be without America?
In the last century or so, America was a factor in resolving World War 1. Much more so in ending World War 2.
Consider what the world would look like if the US had not supported and helped the re-taking of Europe from Hitler. Much of that part of the world would probably be speaking German as their primary language. Those who survived would be living under Hitler’s Aryan rule.
On the other side of the world, what would China and the rest of southern Asia look like today? The Japanese would control much, if not all, of that area.
Later, were it not for the US, the Soviet Union would probably dominate much of northern Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.
All of these things point toward America being good.
But can a country be great and good and still have flaws? Yes. America is not perfect. We dare say that nothing humans have created on earth is perfect.
America has done some good things, but it has also done some regrettable things in its past. What were done to the American Indians and the initial approval of slavery are a couple of these. But could America have made its contributions to the world and be what it is today without having done those things? Most likely not. Maybe we should ask forgiveness for our past actions when times were more unruly in return for what good we have done?
Do the benefits outweigh the disadvantages?
America has gotten into some wars recently which we probably should not have. We consider Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and maybe Viet Nam to be examples of those.
Some of America’s imperfections are internal due to the attitudes of certain people within the nation itself. People living in a free country should be free to live their lives as they choose, within certain legal conditions.
America is a great and overall a good country. There should be no question about that. And it’s reasonable to conclude that the world would be in a far worse place if it did not exist.
Like we said above, America is not perfect. As things have developed, some of the American ideals have been lost. We must recover those. Certain political and other influences and corruption have hurt our nation. We must correct those and work toward further improvement.
We hope maybe the reasonable people on the left, middle, and right in America can come together on what we need to make America more nearly perfect and get it done?
That will likely be the topic of another blog.