so much wrong with one sentence, heh
"America is an idea-one that has endured and evolved through war and depression, prevailed over fascism and communism, and radiated hope to far distant corners of the earth."
This is the first sentence from the Preamble of the 2020 Democratic Party platform.
"America is an idea"?
No, America is a hemisphere, the so-called Western Hemisphere. America is two continents, North America and South America, along with some nearby islands. I try my best not to refer to the United States of America as "America", nor to its residents as "Americans", because doing so erases the rest of our hemisphere and its residents, who are also part of America, who are also Americans. Brazilians are Americans. Hatians are Americans. It's as if Swiss acted like they were the only Europeans, or Mongolians acted like they were the only Asians.
I can't imagine a person living on the continent of Asia saying, "Asia is an idea." So what's going on with this opening statement?
Why did the residents of the US take up this verbal tic of referring to ourselves as America? Because of our 19th Century propaganda in favor of Manifest Destiny and the Monroe Doctrine. How is it that the original 13 colonies on the Eastern Seaboard expanded all the way to the Pacific? Hint, some wars were involved. And to the extent we didn't conquer the entire Western Hemisphere, we claimed the rest of the Americas as a US-only imperialism zone -- no European imperialism would be allowed in "our" hemisphere.
During the 19th and 20th Centuries the US intervened in Chile, Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Columbia, Panama, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Guyana, El Salvador, and Grenada. Some of these countries were invaded multiple times by the US. Oh, yeah, we also invaded Canada in 1812!
When you use the word "America" to represent the US, you are standing proudly upon two centuries of military intervention by the US throughout the entire Western Hemisphere. You are implicitly adopting 19th Century propaganda calling for the US to control as much territory in the Americas as possible, while reserving the right to intervene in the internal affairs of any American country, while denying any such right to European powers.
That's the idea of America.
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Moving beyond the Western Hemisphere, how exactly did we "prevail over fascism and communism"? By fighting a global war against Germany & Japan during WW2, and then another set of global interventions against the Soviet Union & China during the so-called Cold War. If the 19th Century was about Manifest Destiny and the Monroe Doctrine in the Western Hemisphere, the 20th Century was about creating a globe-spanning military and economic empire with enough power to impose and enforce universal global Dollar capitalism.
And what does it mean to "radiate hope to far distant corners of the earth"? This must be our 21st Century Global War on Terrorism, in which we reserve the right to bomb or invade any country on the planet if it harbors any group that we determine to be "terrorist". Any group that dares to oppose our universal global Dollar capitalism by fighting for some other way of life.
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This is your idea of America? A globe-spanning superpower that imposes its rule on everybody else via military and economic coercion? I think your idea sucks. I'm not sure why I should continue reading your stupid platform.
This is the first sentence from the Preamble of the 2020 Democratic Party platform.
"America is an idea"?
No, America is a hemisphere, the so-called Western Hemisphere. America is two continents, North America and South America, along with some nearby islands. I try my best not to refer to the United States of America as "America", nor to its residents as "Americans", because doing so erases the rest of our hemisphere and its residents, who are also part of America, who are also Americans. Brazilians are Americans. Hatians are Americans. It's as if Swiss acted like they were the only Europeans, or Mongolians acted like they were the only Asians.
I can't imagine a person living on the continent of Asia saying, "Asia is an idea." So what's going on with this opening statement?
Why did the residents of the US take up this verbal tic of referring to ourselves as America? Because of our 19th Century propaganda in favor of Manifest Destiny and the Monroe Doctrine. How is it that the original 13 colonies on the Eastern Seaboard expanded all the way to the Pacific? Hint, some wars were involved. And to the extent we didn't conquer the entire Western Hemisphere, we claimed the rest of the Americas as a US-only imperialism zone -- no European imperialism would be allowed in "our" hemisphere.
During the 19th and 20th Centuries the US intervened in Chile, Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Columbia, Panama, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Guyana, El Salvador, and Grenada. Some of these countries were invaded multiple times by the US. Oh, yeah, we also invaded Canada in 1812!
When you use the word "America" to represent the US, you are standing proudly upon two centuries of military intervention by the US throughout the entire Western Hemisphere. You are implicitly adopting 19th Century propaganda calling for the US to control as much territory in the Americas as possible, while reserving the right to intervene in the internal affairs of any American country, while denying any such right to European powers.
That's the idea of America.
-----
Moving beyond the Western Hemisphere, how exactly did we "prevail over fascism and communism"? By fighting a global war against Germany & Japan during WW2, and then another set of global interventions against the Soviet Union & China during the so-called Cold War. If the 19th Century was about Manifest Destiny and the Monroe Doctrine in the Western Hemisphere, the 20th Century was about creating a globe-spanning military and economic empire with enough power to impose and enforce universal global Dollar capitalism.
And what does it mean to "radiate hope to far distant corners of the earth"? This must be our 21st Century Global War on Terrorism, in which we reserve the right to bomb or invade any country on the planet if it harbors any group that we determine to be "terrorist". Any group that dares to oppose our universal global Dollar capitalism by fighting for some other way of life.
-----
This is your idea of America? A globe-spanning superpower that imposes its rule on everybody else via military and economic coercion? I think your idea sucks. I'm not sure why I should continue reading your stupid platform.