What is wrong with Americans? I find it baffling enough to be religious- but I can understand it to a degree. But to be that weird over and anthem & flag- it's complete indoctrination.
Full on jingoism - you're either with us or against us.
Sadly, that's not how it works. If I have an opinion and I choose to express it in a way you don't like, doesn't mean I'm against you, does it?
Huge culture war going on in the US, if you haven't noticed. There's all sorts of angles - religious, sexual, national origin, race, education, economic status etc...
The root problem for me is that as Americans, we're all immigrants. USA has thrived on immigration - people coming to the US to seek out a better life for whatever reason - more freedom, more wealth, more education. Historically, we've welcomed it and its made us better.
There is a remarkably large segment of the US that feels left behind, left out, ignored - rural America is in trouble. Industries that supported those communities are shuttered or overseas. Educational system is not providing what people need to be in a changing economy. Sadly, the opportunities of earning a good wage on a high school education as a tradesman or in manufacturing are few and declining. If you can't see the writing on the wall as to what automation will do to the economy, you're already left behind. Drugs are a huge problem in economically depressed places - not just talking certain parts of Chicago or Detroit, try whole regions (Appalachia, the Ohio River Valley); places where those middle class jobs don't exist anymore.
This leads to a pining for the past and Trump nailed that. He promised to bring back manufacturing jobs (hard to really tell if that's happening because he takes credit for everything), stop others from taking jobs, benefits and draining welfare resources (build that wall), drain the swamp in Washington (he's done the exact opposite - wealthiest Cabinet in US history filled with either cronies or Wall Street elites) and MAGA (turn America back to the 1950's when the white man was supreme, his religion and beliefs were supreme and everyone else sat in the back of the bus).
We're not going back to the 1950's. Impossible. Not sure if his base is going to realize this or if they even care. He's given them a lightning rod for all of the things his base wants the US to be - what it used to be. Absolute foolishness to believe he's going to bring back coal mining jobs. Absolute foolishness to believe he's going to build a wall.
Biggest migrations in recent human history were to our benefit - people fleeing England in the 1600's for religious reasons (hello Mayflower pilgrims), the Irish Potato Famine and the California Gold Rush. None of that happens with a wall, right?
As a result of these, we had 13 colonies big and strong enough to tell King George to jam it. We settled the US by going west because of immigrants. We now have California which had a larger GDP in 2015 than France - the entire country of France.
So, the US is all of us - every color, creed, origin, religion...whatever. Anything past that is either ignorant or just plain prejudice.
