Do Americans truly believe in American values?

[KlatooBNikto]

It is my belief that we on the left are mistaken if we think that Americans, by and large, believe in the principles that have formed the basis of our Democracy.There is a large minority of Americans who think that the Bill of Rights can be abrogated at will "for the good of the country",of course. And that "certain people" do not qualify to be Americans at all. Their voting rights need to be revoked or challenged because they are not true Americans like the rest of us.This includes, of course, blacks, Native Americans, Jews, Hispanics, gays and any one that doesn't fit the nomenclature of the "True American". It is this large minority along with those who are terror struck by 9/11 that have fundamentally altered the political landscape of the country.To them wars, economic ruin,lies from our rulers, religious excesses do not hold the same terrors as the external threats posed by dark skinned foreigners who hate " our freedoms" and internal threats posed by liberals and softies who want to criticize our Commander in Chief.

In the end I believe that this large minority seeks to replicate the Apartheid Society of South Africa over here:intolerant to a fault,obsessive in its religious fanaticism and questioning the loyalty of anyone who doesn't meet well understood but tacit criteria of who is an American.

[RBHam]

1. values...

[KlatooBNikto]

8. In my post I was not even thinking about the "values" that you so

graphically display are the ones that the fundamentalists wear on their sleeves. I was talking about the equality of all men.That there are certain inalienable rights that are beyond the province of our laws. That our rulers are accountable to our people. That they cannot wage wars without the full and informed consent of our representatives. It is clear that there is a very large minority of people who would choose expediency over these values, given the right mix of religion, race and nationality of our "enemies".

[DebJ]

2. I actually had about three people tell me that the Constitution is

a very old document so who needs it? Really. During my campaigning over the past year.
I just wanted to vomit.
And wanted to say "Obviously you are a child who was left behind."

[itzamirakul]

3. It's a real shame that...

the Democratic Party is afraid to touch this subject of embedded American racism with a long-handled spoon. If you notice, all discussion centers around the evangelicals and their "moral values" outweighing our liberal viewpoint - but no one mentions the fact that for years, Rush Limbaugh and others of his ilk have succeeded in gluing large segments of the middle of America together into a racist whole with hate talk. If that many black Americans have been disenfranchised since 2000,with absolutely no outrage on the part of the Party or its members, then it is apparent that the Democratic leadership has no intention of addressing this topic.Instead we read about all the reasons we should be "courting" the evangelicals and getting them to "like" us.

Couple that closeted bigotry with voter fraud and you have a clear "majority."

[mutius]

4. Most Americans are liberal

73% of Americans don't believe in the sanctity of marriage. they live together outside of wedlock. They like their pornography, especially Conservatives. Our jails are full of liberals. Family values, huh! most children have multiple parents with half bothers and sisters. The divorce rate is sky rocketing, even among the church. Pastors are divorced, and still keep preaching the gospel. Before you take the stone out of your bothers eye, take the bolder out of your own. Thats what Jesus said. The conservatives are the biggest hypocrites.
Yesterday I went to the VA and a nurse I know asked, "how are you doing." I said, "I'm kind of down because of the election." Well she voted for bush and she is a professed Christian. I know the church she attends. Well any way she believes in the war. (Iraq)But what she said really bothered me. She said, "Not only Iraq, we should have did them all." :kick:

[PsychoDad]

5. "Do Americans truly believe in American values?"

Greed, Lust, Death...

They Sure do.

Fair Play, Rooting for the Underdog, Helping you neighbor... Those are so 20's, so FDR.

[KlatooBNikto]

6. Ironically, the men who took the measure of Americans during the

heady and euphoric days after WWII were Goebbels and Goering. Goebbels clearly believed that all it took for anyone to seize power was to create an external threat.Goering believed that the socalled American values will come crashing down when a charismatic leader of the Hitlerian variety seizes upon externla and internal threats to "bring along" the masses to do his bidding. This is why I think that even after all the talk about WMD's and AlQaeda link to saddam were disproved, Cheney could keep repeating them as though they were still true and no one seemed to disbelieve him.The fact that there are people who simply want to kill our perceived enemies regardless of facts tells the whole story.In fact, I would be go one step further.If 9/11 was proven to be the handiwork of the PNAC cabal, there are millions of people who would be willing to offer a justification for why it had to be done.I rest my case.

[Solomon]

9. This is what I'm talking about. These are the real american "values".

Theft, greed, murder, white supremacy, lust, doubletalk, vanity, etc., etc., etc. Superiority.

[KlatooBNikto]

10. The idea that Americans are truly exceptional and that they are here to

dispense Freedom and Democracy to the lesser breeds of people in the world has taken on epic proportions through propaganda.Sometimes this reaches ludicrous depths ( or heights, depending on your POV).On a trip to Sweden a few years ago on business, a colleague of mine saw fit to lecture our Swedish hosts on why America is a beacon of Democracy that should be followed by all Europeans. This in the middle of Stockholm, probably the most civilized Western capital that can teach Democratic values better than any American just by the way the Swedes go about living their every day lives.On any given day it is not unusual to find the King bicycling on Stockholm's streets without any bodyguards or the Queen shopping for vegetables on the markets with no one paying them any particular attention.

This incredible self absorption of our people against all evidence that screams at their faces every time is what makes us despised by civilized Europeans and Asians.Of course we are also feared by the less fortunate people of the world who do not have our military might.

To make this long sorry tale short, we are the new Rome of the Western world.Our rulers are venal men to whom lives mean nothing, whether they are our own unfortunate lower classes or the poor of the Third world. We are on a collision course with history.The ending is predictable but we do not know when it will come to pass.

[alarimer]

7. A lot of this can be blamed on the educational system

I am not sure if school systems have civics classes anymore but they should.