oh dear god, please do not turn this into a "fuck america" thread. Ya'll realize that if it weren't for american democracy and capitalism that most of the world would be living under a chocolate chip cookie or stalinistic totalitarian regime? Yeah smooth, we ain't perfect. Show me a country that is and we can all move there. In the meantime though, why don't you and everyone else quit thinking you have some sort of right to endlessly bitch about the country that has pulled the rest of the world from the brink of chaos multiple times. Instead, why don't you, just once, consider being grateful for all the shit that we've done for you.
Actually the Stalinistic regime pretty much single handedly obliterated Germany to win WW2 in Europe, and I do not recall the Soviets ever threatening to invade western europe or taking over the world or anything like that. If anything, they were invaded by the West over and over and over, including America supporting the Whites in their Civil War, and just had 1/5 of their entire population wiped out in WW2 by their lovely western neighbor. In fact, America was the one that used the rhetoric "WE MUST STOP COMMUNIST EXPANSION!" to go around overthrowing democracy in South/Central America, Asia, and the Middle East for the past 60 years, installing pro-west ($$$) dictators who stripped away the civil rights and individual/economic liberty of their people more often then not. All simply to fulfil business contracts with the military and energy industries, while fueling it all by attempting to brainwash American citizens with anti-soviet/communist hysteria.
This cycle of greed being fueled by hate leading to domestic paranoia and ignorance can be shown by 1950's American Senator, Joseph McCarthy, recreating the Salem Witch Trials by ruining the lives of countless innocents claiming them to be communist spies. And that tradition lives on today as recently as 2 weeks ago, with Congresswoman Michele Bachmann now claiming doing the same but replacing Communist with Muslim.
Next you will be telling me America in the 21st century, is keeping the world safe not anymore from The Evil Eastern European, but from The Evil Sand friends (and mexicans too) thus we all owe America everything and have no place to criticize shortsighted or simply cruel and selfish domestic and foreign policy?
Ironically that great era you speak of, where America bounced back from the Great Depression to become a leader on the world stage, a number one investor/creditor to Europe and the rest of the world, and a beacon of technological progress and economic prosperity.. funny enough this was all during and immediately after the era of FDR, a 4 term president who was the closest to a Social-Democrat we've had, despite being a bit of a dick and the New Deal having its own set of problems. But it was the right track, and since Nixon, and most devastatingly, Ronald Reagan's administration, America has been fucked and is being destroyed from the top by entrenched elite, namely the "one percent" that surrounded the Occupy Wall Street movement. Of which I was a proud participant.
Also, you say:
"In the meantime though, why don't you and everyone else quit thinking you have some sort of right to endlessly bitch about the country that has pulled the rest of the world from the brink of chaos multiple times. " In the meantime though, why don't you and everyone else quit thinking you have some sort of right to endlessly bitch "Funny, I guess I thought the point of democracy was a government held accountable by its people? Though I guess a system where citizens have no right to protest the actions of their leaders, while putting full confidence, faith, and love into their nation and holding nothing but pride and enthusiasm for military achievements with a focus on conquest and expansion.. boy what could be more American then that? I guess the chocolate chip cookies really did have the right idea in your eyes.