We Reached For The Stars

“You know why people don’t like Liberals? Because they lose. If Liberals are so fucking smart, how come they lose so goddamn always?

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You’re gonna tell [students] that America is so star-spangled-awesome that we’re the only ones in the world who have freedom? Canada has freedom; Japan has freedom. The U.K., France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia, Belgium – has freedom.

207 sovereign states in the world, like, 180 of ‘em have freedom.

Just in case you accidentally wander into a voting booth one day, there’s some things you should know. One of them is: there’s absolutely no evidence to support the statement that ‘we’re the greatest country in the world’. We’re 7^th in literacy; 27^th in math; 22^nd in science; 49^th in life expectancy; 178^th in infant mortality; 3^rd in median household income; #4 in labor force & #4 in exports. We lead the world in only three categories – number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending—where we spend more than the next 26 countries combined, 25 of whom are allies.

Now none of this is the fault of a 20 year old college student, but you are without a doubt a member of the worst [period] generation [period] ever [period]; so when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about! Yosemite?

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It sure used to be. We stood up for what was right. We fought for moral reasons. We passed laws, struck down laws, for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people.

We sacrificed. We cared about our neighbors. We put our money where our mouths were and we never beat our chest.

We built great, big things; made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and we cultivated the world’s greatest artists and the world’s greatest economy.

We reached for the stars.

Acted like men.

We aspired to intelligence, we didn’t belittle it; it didn’t make us feel inferior.

We didn’t identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election, and we didn’t scare so easy.

We were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed… by great men; men who were revered. The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one. America is not the greatest country in the world anymore.”