OPINION: U.S. flawed, but better than most

This nation isn’t perfect today, or historically. Our ancestors did treat native American Indians horribly; and our abuse of slavery and later, Jim Crow laws, was wrong.

Still, the president’s tone and obvious worshipping of European-style collectivism does put him in a light of being less than proud about the individualistic aspects of the American Ideal. The president likes big government, centralized control, unions and other institutions that favor the collective over individual decision-making.

In the elite Left circles in which the president circulates, the U.S. is blamed for terrorism since we “don’t understand” their beliefs. The fringe Left also decries environmental problems and blames the U.S. for most of those problems.

OK, we get it. America isn’t perfect.

But for all of those who have a blame-America-first mentality, consider this: To what nation does the world look in times of crisis and turmoil?

Don’t like U.S. politics? Then take a hike across the border to Mexico and wave to all those people struggling to get across going the other direction.

Or how about China? Travel there and set up your little blog about all those “radical right-wingers” and let’s see how long the Chinese government lets you operate.

Think the U.S. needs to “understand” those Muslim nations better? Ok, go right on over to Saudi Arabia or any other conservative Muslim state and do whatever you want. A woman? Be prepared to cover your body in a carpet so that no man ever looks at you again, except for those who are allowed to rape you at will. And don’t get too excited about education; in some places, women aren’t allowed to attend school.

And in health issues, you don’t think ObamaCare goes far enough? OK, jump on a jet for London and make an appointment. Call home when you finally get to see a doctor.

And you don’t like the American media, especially that awful right-wing FOX news which you hold in such contempt? OK, go to Russia where the government controls the press and where journalists are sometimes killed when they began to expose corruption.

No, America isn’t a perfect nation.

But it’s better than 90 percent of the rest of the world where people live in fear; the fear of starvation, the fear of natural disasters, the fear of no knowledge and the fear of death if they speak their minds or move outside the rigid social rules under which they must live.

For once, we’d like to see the president stand up to those whining other nations who blame us for all their ills. He should defend our ideals with strong words and tell those other nations that from now own, they can solve their own problems, protect their own borders, feed their own people, recover from their own disasters and save their own miserable economies, all without our help.

The U.S. is flawed, but damn if we’re not tired of how the rest of the world blames us for all their problems, too.