My goodness ! You have been so deeply indoctrinated ! It feels like you are reciting prayers !
This is supposing the present race of kings in the world to have had an honorable origin; whereas it is more than probable, that could we take off the dark covering of antiquity, and trace them to their first rise, we should find the first of them nothing better than the principal ruffian of some restless gang, whose savage manners, or pre-eminence in subtilty obtained for him the title of chief among plunderers; (Common Sense by Thomas Paine)
Maciamo
Well I finally have gotten around to answering you. I am not indoctrinated. I have just been well taught by my maternal grandfather, my father and uncles to love the United States and the great things it did for the world. This is huge difference which perhaps as a European you have difficulty understanding. My maternal grandfather was able to get out of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and avoid the bloodbath (WW I) caused by that inbred European gangster family (Hapsburg, Hollenzollern, Hanover/Windsor, Romanov) which subjugated the poor people of Europe and used their sons as cannon fodder. My father got back to Europe as an occupying soldier just as the WWII ended and stood as a free man on the soil of Germany to make sure that the evil that came from the wonderful European philosphy called National Socialism would be foreover banished from the earth. Unfortunately, his mother (my paternal grandmother) never was able to make the trip to America from Czecholslovkia and lived the remainder of her life under that other great European philosophy called Communism. Besides these philosophies, Europe gave the world a hosts of gangsters kings and dictators, Napoleon I and III, Kaiser Wilhelm, Lenin, Stalin, Franco, Mussolini and the list goes on and one. I would maintain that you perhaps should look at your own indoctrination. From an American prospective it is simple knee jerk fault finding on everything American.
So you basically disagree that most of the new economic and lifestyle trends start in California or New York, or more generally speaking in the West Coast and Northeast corner of the USA ?
I tried to explain to you that there is a real tension between the coasts and what we would call the "Heartland" of America. Whereas many trends may originate on the coasts and may have media backing does not necessarily mean they will be adopted, in spite of the hype. I think a good point of this is the religious nature of Americans. While Hollywood may continually push a secular worldview, the majority of Americans ignore it or work against it.
Why are you telling me all this ? That's common knowledge, even in Europe. You really seem to think that Europeans know as little about the USA as you do about Europe.
You are stereotyping Americans that we know little of Europe. Remember many of us are only one or two generations from Europe. On the other hand, I have certainly not got the sense from the posts of Europeans on this thread that there is any real understanding of American history or culture. Because one may have seen a lot of American fantasy TV and films doesn't mean that one has any understanding of America. You need to visit and even live here for a while. Someone made a remark about how we leave our doors unlocked. They do on "Desperate Houswives" but nowhere else. I hear a constant refrain from Europeans about how "sophisicated" Europeans are. I have had many European teachers and contacts with Europeans from work and my hometown. It is certainly my opinion that Europeans are not really all that sophisicated. The history of Europe certainly seems to bear this out. Isn't this a natural and universal feeling though. People of different cultures believe that their culture is the only way of doing things. I admit I do, but that doesn't negate what is true and good.
The US Constitution has been amended 27 times. It is not the same constitution as in 1787 any more. The Netherlands and Sweden also changed parts of their constitution, but the countries are still the same (unlike say ancient Rome which doesn't exist any more).
Check your facts. The constitution is the same. In 1787, the need for amendments was recognized and built into the constitution. Again, our constitution is the oldest existing continuing written constitution on earth. Many constitutions such as the Swiss constitution are modeled on it. Is it perfect? Of course not. But it gave the lie to the gangster families who ran Europe who held that a large nation needed a gangster king to run it and people needed to give up their freedom for security. As the reverse of our national seal says, Novus Ordo Saeculorum" - a new order for the ages.
You are reciting again, but I don't see the point of your argument. It's not even an argument, nor even a justification.
That's your opinion. How about if I recite a prayer for you?
Switzerland and the Netherlands became republics long before the USA (although the Netherlands democratically chose to become a constitutional monarchy afterwards). Even England had a brief Republican period under Cromwell, but that didn't work out too well. There are still many monarchies in Europe, and they usually have higher living standards than the USA (notably Scandinavian countries).
Again, check your facts. The Swiss constitution is modeled on the US Constitution. England was never a republic. It was called a commonwealth and Cromwell more or less was appointed a dictator who tried to pass his power on to his son. If England had had an actual republic under Cromwell, it would not have called back another gangster to rule it. Again, this is why we American revere George Washington. He could have went the way of a Cromwell, but decided instead to go back home to Mt. Vernon (twice), once at the end of the revolution and once at the end of his second term as president. By the way, Scandanavia ain't all it cracked up to be. SAAB is going through bankrupacy and they have real immigrant problems, which make ours look namby pamby by comparison.
Your ancestors were so lucky ? I thought you said your father and grandparents came from Slovakia. They had nothing to do with the American Revolution ! You sound like you have been brainwashed so much that you forget about your own origins.
Again, I suggest you look who is actually speaking cogently. Your remark about forgetting my origins is actually very bizarre from an American prospective. Mosts Americans are a hypen. I am an Slovak - American. I live next door to an Arab - American and across the street from a Polish- American. Next to them are Bosnian- Americans. On the other side are Phillipino - Americans. We are all Americans and proud to be Americans, but we are also proud of where our roots lie. Many of us belong to associations to perserve our heritage. Far from being in conflict, it is something that is expected and encouarged. The only caveat is that we are all Americans first. But this choice makes us heirs to the founding of our nation.
As an aside, many ethnic groups actually had a great deal to do with the founding of the American nation and perserving it. Jamestown, the first succesful english colony in what is now the U.S. had Polish glass blowers and Slavic bricklayers (Slovaks claim that "Slavic" refers to us). Thaddeus Koscuizscko, the great Polish hero, was also a hero in our revolution. His work on fortifying the American position at the battle of Saratoga essentially won the battle. Winning this battle convinced the French to recognize the new United States and to supply military support, which utimately won the war for independence. The Irish were a huge segment of soldiers who fought for the union in our civil war. Jewish immigrants like Albert Einstein and other immigrants like Enrico Fermi (Italian) and Teller (Hungarian) were instrumental in developing the atom bomb. German immigrants put us on the moon. The list goes on and on. Heck, my wife is Polish. When the kids were little, a Polish heritage group my wife belongs to kept sending us coloring books of Polish American heros of the revolution. This is a natural thing in the US.
Why Napoleon ? It surely did more for humanity than George Washington. Check my article. There are quite a lot of Americans who view Napoleon as a tyrant like Hitler. He was surely much closer to his contemporaries, the Founding Fathers of the USA. He was a man of the Enlightenment and was loved by the French people, and still is highly regarded in France and some other European countries. There are new biographies written all the time about Napoleon still nowadays. The latest to be published was written by former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin in 2009.
Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha Napoleon was the biggest gangster of them all. His biggest acheivement was the graves of the hundred of thousands (maybe millions) of people he killed off. I included Thomas Paine's quote from "Common Sense" especially for the likes of Napoleon. His butchery included both his French people and nearly every nation around him. Napoleon did nothing for anyone except himself. As he said, the French crown was in the gutter waiting to be picked up. Washington was so popular he probably could have been acclaimed a king if he had pushed for it. Instead, he was horrified by the thought. He gave up years of life to lead the fight for a new independent republic and nearly impoverished himself for it. Then it was his personal prestige, which was the only thing that convinced the states to form a new nation under our still existing constitution. They say that Napoleon was a great general and maybe he was. But who was the better man? Who achieved their goals. Napoleon wanted to be a great emperor over a conquered Europe. In the end he lost everything and at such a cost to so many. Washington just wanted to go back home and be a farmer, yet in the end he won the esteem of the entire world and founded one of the greatest nations in history. A nation founded on democratic principles and freedom. I hope I was sufficiently prayerful for you.
Why do you say "someone indicated" when you are replying to me personally ? Universal suffrage is not the same as universal male suffrage, and even that was not achieved in the USA until 1965 because this is when African Americans obtained the right to vote. Anyway, even if we omit African Americans, the US only granted the vote to women in 1920, after many European countries. So much for America being the world's first modern democracy.