[Sailor Steve]

I thought the clip was trite and melodramatic. Good for a sound bite, but not worth anything. The ideal that America brought forth 200 years ago did indeed change the world, but the country and its people are no better, no worse and no different than they were then. The ideal of freedom is a great one, perhaps the greatest, but associating the ideal with the country itself is arrogance at its worst.

Yes, there are many things wrong with America, just as there are many things wrong with any country, group or person. Part of the problem is that people disagree about exactly what is wrong and exactly what should be done about it. America is no less great now than it was fifty or two hundred years ago. It's the ideal that is great. Lose sight of that and you lose sight of the only thing that counts.